The Snowy Day

I'm back! Thank you for all of your kind comments while I was sick. And I am happy so many of you found my picture amusing. For those of you who were wondering: no, that wasn't a pose. That was actually what I looked like. Seriously, this was the sinus infection from you-know-where and I am so glad to be on the mend!

I've decided the only way we're going to see snowflakes around here is if we make them ourselves. Virginia does get snow, but we're too close to the shore to get accumulation. It's sad, I tell you, for this native Michigander to raise her daughters in a snowless city. So we decided to celebrate snow this week, starting with paper snowflakes. Here's how we did it.

1. Fold a piece of paper to create a square.

2. Have your child cut off the excess paper.

3. Fold the triangle in half.

4. Now fold one end about 1/3 over, like this.

5. Fold the other side over.

6. Cut off the hanging corners.

7. Now have your child cut out triangles. This is great practice with scissors, although you may need to help cutting through the thick paper. E. was so excited that hers looked like a snowman.

8. Carefully unfold the paper to reveal your snowflake!

If you worked up an appetite cutting out all that paper (or if you have younger children who can't operate scissors yet) try these edible snowflakes!

Even A. got into the action on this one. She did great stabbing the mini marshmallows with the toothpicks... and then eating them off.

So proud of her fine motor skills!

After stabbing our marshmallows, we displayed our snowflakes on the back door, which looks bleakly out into our barren, snowless backyard.

So we decided to read about more fortunate children in colder climes...

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

This is another classic I didn't discover until adulthood. Little Peter sets out on the first snowy day of the year to play and explore. His escapades are classic for a young child: making footprints, creating snow angels, climbing snow "mountains", and knocking snow off the trees... right onto his head. The storytelling is perfect for young children: descriptive and concise, and the images carry the same distinction. There's a reason this book won the Caldecott.

If my daughters can't experience a snowy day for themselves, I'm glad there's a book that let's them live vicariously!

Other snow-themed books:

Sam the Snowman by Susan Winget

E. brought home this book for her reading homework, and I think it lives up to Scholastic standards. The story is cute, although a little too saccharine for my tastes, but the pictures are adorable. Full of color and sweet details, these illustrations are simply delightful! The book tells of Sam, a snowman who is finally successful at bringing snow to the earth thanks to the help of two little kids.



The Tiny Snowflake by Art Ginolfi

We were given this as a board book, but the story is geared towards preschoolers, not toddlers or babies. The illustrations are okay, but I enjoy the message of the story. It follows a little snowflake as she falls toward the earth. On her journey she meets different snowflakes, each of which are unique and created for a special purpose. The tiny snowflake begins to despair that she will ever discover her own purpose when the sun reveals her special nature. A nice little story reminding our children that like a snowflake, they are special and created by God for a special purpose.