Snowflake Building Activity

Another thing that is new on my classroom shelves this week is this snowflake activity.  I printed it from Making Learning Fun which is quickly becoming one of my new favorite websites (and all the printables are FREE!!!)  Expect to see many more things from this site in upcoming posts.  To prepare this activity, print the snowflake cards.  I printed mine on cardstock and laminated them.  You must also cut out white felt into the various shapes.  Patterns for the shapes are included in the downloads.  I used cheap craft felt.  However, I may go back and redo it using my wool blend felt scraps.  The cheap acrylic felt is just so fuzzy and clingy.  It can be frustrating to work with.  Anyway..........

   

Here is how the work is set up on a tray.  I have a piece of blue felt on the bottom which will serve as the "background" for the snowflake building.  Then, a little container to hold the felt pieces and another one for the snowflake cards.

 

This photo shows a snowflake built by one of my students.  One suggestion I have for presenting this work is to have the child begin by sorting all the little felt pieces by shape. This will make it much easier for them when they try to replicate a snowflake from the card.  Of course they should also be allowed to use the shapes to create their own unique, symmetrical snowflake.  I really love this activity so much!!

Edited on 1/13/09:  After observing my students using this activity, I decided to find a divided container in which to place the shapes.  I found that some children were becoming discouraged about how long it took them to find the shape they needed and were then giving up on the activity entirely.  See the photo below for how I have it set up now.

 

I found a little divided tray in my stash.  It is stamped with Fisher-Price, so I think it might have once belonged to a playset of some sort.  Anyway, it was perfect.  I was only able to include 6 shapes as it only has 6 compartments.  So, I just removed any pattern cards with the other 2 shapes (rectangles and large circles).  I think this activity will get a lot more use as a result of this modification.

 

Here's a close-up of the shapes.

Comments

[Laura]

Thanks, Tanya, for both your kind words and helpful info about the tray. It does look just like a little ice cube tray! Take care and thanks so much for writing!
Laura

To: directress@live.com

[Tanya]

I just found your blog and I LOVE IT!!!!!!
Thank you so much for sharing!

Also I went on Ebay and found that exact same little blue tray that you use for this activity. They call it "Fisher Price Fun with Food Kitchen Blue Ice Cube Tray" or "REALISTIC Ice Cubes for your Fisher Price Ice Tray". It's really expensive, though, but maybe someone could use this info.

[Valerie @ Frugal Family Fun Blog]

Thanks so much for posting about this. I did this with my daughter, and we used an empty egg carton to keep the pieces sorted. Great activity! You can see my post (with photos) here:

http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2009/01/frugal-way-to-occupy-kids-during.html

[maryanne]

I love this activity, thanks for sharing!

[Miranda]

This is terrific!

[Sam and Nate]

Love it!!