Winter Snowman Art Activity for Kids

Today was our first snow of the season. What does that mean? Other than pretty winter weather, it’s time for snowman art activities! This one isn’t just a seasonal craft. It also includes a lesson in shapes and doubles as a sensory finger painting activity.

Before you get started, I have a favorite little story that I like to tell when it comes to art activities. This one also happens to focus specifically on snowmen. One of my first teaching jobs was as a museum-studio arts educator. During the interview my soon-to-be boss asked me what I thought about children making art that was completely original and unique, even if it didn’t really look like “something.” I told her that I was all for it. She then told me about her first teaching job interview. It was during the winter, at an elementary school. She walked through the front door to see dozens of snowmen collages hung on the walls. Every art project looked identical. The same three pre-cut white circles, stacked in the exact same way, with perfect triangle noses all pointed to the right and little scarves all pointed to the left. She asked if this was the type of art that the school expected her to do with her students. She was told, “Yes.” She didn’t take the job.

What’s the point of the story? If your child’s paint print snowman art doesn’t turn out like the one photographed here, it doesn’t matter. Let her be an original. If she wants to make a horizontal snowman, a diagonal one or an abstract version in which the circles are all over the place, that’s ok. If the eyes are where the buttons go and the nose looks more like a squid that a carrot, that’s ok too!

Here’s What You’ll Need:

·        Card stock paper – You can use blue to make a sky-like background, or choose another colorful hue.

·        Paper cups – We used those tiny bathroom-sized ones.

·        White tempera paint

·        Wax paper – It makes an excellent palette that the paint won’t soak through.

·        Modeling clay

·        Googley eyes

·        Clear-drying school glue

·        Tissue paper

Here’s What to Do:

1.     Pour a golf ball-sized pool of the white paint onto the wax paper. Don’t worry if the cup is bigger than the pool. Your child can spread it out as she makes the print.

2.     Dip the open end of the cup into the paint. Your child can push and squish it around to coat the entire edge.
 

3.     Press the painted edge down onto the card stock paper. Ask your child to tell you what shape she is making.

4.     Repeat two more times to make the snowman’s body and head. Your child can also turn the cup around and use the smaller bottom part to make the head.
 

5.     Coat your child’s fingers in the white paint. Have her fill the insides of the circles with snowy fingerprints.
 

6.     Glue two googley eyes onto the face.
 

7.     Pull a teeny tiny piece of clay apart. Use orange or combine red and yellow to add in a color mixing aspect to the activity.

8.     Roll the clay into a carrot nose shape.

9.     Press the nose onto the face (use a little dab of glue if it doesn’t stick).
 

 

10. Roll a few more small-sized pieces of clay. This time your child can make them into circle buttons. Glue these onto the front of the snowman.

11. Create arms. Your child can roll tube-like pieces of clay and glue them to the side of one of the circles.

12. Tear a piece of tissue paper into a rectangle shape. Glue it under the head to make a warm winter scarf.

Are you looking for more winter art activities? Follow my Pinterest board for ideas from around the web!

 

 

Follow Mini Monets and Mommies's board Winter Activities for Kids on Pinterest.