Once Upon a Book ~ A Million Snowflakes

 

 Millions of Snowflakes

by Mary McKenna Siddals

Summary:  A child delightfully discovers what happens when one snowflake falls followed by millions more.  We count with the child as he experiences the first of many snowflakes to cover his home.
 
A snowflake is a unique creation, much like our children.  One snowflake melts on your tongue and resembles God's exquisite handiwork; and millions of snowflakes create a snowman that resemble the body of Christ working together.  Snowflakes are white, reminding us of purity. The sight of puffy snowflakes blanketing the ground kindles Christmas music in our ears, thoughts of hands building a fire, and tongues tasting hot chocolate with white marshmallows.

I'm pleased to say that we recently listened to Christmas music, built a fire, and sipped hot chocolate.

But even more pleasant to me was discovering how much God actually refers to snow in the Bible!!  I discovered 25 references to snow!  One of the more vivid pictures the Bible paints of snow that we can easily share with our children is

Isaiah 1:18 which says,

"Though your sins are like scarlet,
       they shall be as white as snow;
       though they are red as crimson,
       they shall be like wool.

I would encourage you to use the object of snow to explain how Jesus takes our sins away.  As snow is beautiful, white and pure, so Jesus allows His saving work on the cross, to fall upon our hearts creating lovely clean souls.  Though snow melts and disappears – leaving a muddy mess, Jesus never stops covering our sins.  When we confess our sins and ask Him to forgive us, He brings His big holy shovel and cleans the driveway and sidewalks of our heart.  If you are blessed to receive snow where you live, go outside with your Tot and pretend to be like Jesus shoveling the pretend sidewalk of your hearts!

Bring The Snow Inside



Especially if you have multiple children, helping everyone get dressed up to go play outside can be a lot of frustration work.  Bring the snow inside.

What You’ll Need

• snow
  
• a sink or  large plastic tub
  
• toys for your child to play with
  
• imagination!

Sock Snowman

We confiscated some white athletic socks from my husband’s sock drawer much to the delight of my sons.  I loosely followed the ideas listed at Danielle’s Place for the No-Sew Sock Snowman Craft.

What You’ll Need

• a white tube sock for each child
  
• poly-fill to stuff the socks (you could also crumple up paper)
  
• 5 black pompoms and 1 orange pompom
  
• yarn or scrap fabric for a scarf and hat
  
• brown paper, 2 small twigs, or chenille wire for the arms
  
• 2 rubber bands
  
• Hot glue gun or craft glue

How  To Make

1. Have your Tot stuff the sock with poly-fill.  (I helped Mr. Me-Too with this activity by holding the sock and having balls of poly-fill ready for his hands to grab.)
   
2. Tie the end of the sock with string or a rubber band.
   
3. Help your Tot create balls of snow by sliding rubber bands down the sock to form a head and a body, thus dividing the sock into thirds.
   
4. Allow your Tot to decorate the sock snowman with the left over supplies.  To make the chenille wire arms, I formed a “Y” and Mr. Me-Too his brother poked the wire through the sock. Be very careful if you are using a hot glue gun to attach the pompom balls, as it can burn little fingers and mom fingers!
   
5. To make the hat, simply wrap a piece of fabric around the top of the snowman, turn fabric up to create a fake hem, and glue the multiple layers of fabric to each other and the sock.  Tie the top of the hat to resemble a pompom or simply glue another pompom on top!

Build Mobile Snowmen

I don’t have any fancy software to create patterns.  So if I want to create something, I Google it or I simply create my own crude pattern by hand.  Various circle shapes around the house worked well for reusable templates.

What You’ll Need

• white card stock paper
  
• scrap construction paper for hats, mittens, etc. (Even snowmen need accessories!)
  
• clear tape (cleaner than glue!)

How To Make

• Trace and have your child cut out the various sizes of circles.
  
• Have your Tot tape the snowman together, trying to have them pick three different sizes of circles and tape them in order of smallest to largest.
  
• Allow your child to decorate the snowman.  I also made hats for them to tape on.

 

And lastly, we made snowflakes.  OK . . . I made snowflakes.  We pretended that they were falling from the sky, just as in the book.



I have done this game before, except with feathers for a Tot School post.

How To Play

1. Make paper snowflakes.
   
2. Grab a handful of your snowflakes and stand on a chair.
   
3. Have your children use a scarf or a hat to catch the snowflakes as they come falling, falling, down.
   
4. Be prepared for giggles!

 

(Oh, and please forgive the mess!  This is what happens when I do school instead of clean the house!)

Chalk Snowflake Rubbings

If you still have energy after all of these activities, finish the day off by doing snowflake rubbings with either a crayon or chalk.



What You’ll Need

1. Chalk
   
2. Newsprint or thin paper
   
3. paper snowflakes
   
4. patience

How To Make

1. Place leftover paper snowflakes under newsprint or thin paper.
   
2. Help your child hold the chalk horizontally, and rub the chalk over the bumpy paper surface.
   
3. You should see a snowflake pattern emerge!

Wow!  That was a fun first Once Upon A Book for us!  Enjoy!  And just so you know, actually so that you don’t feel overwhelmed . . . we didn’t do all of these projects in one day!

P.S. If you would like to play a snowflake matching game with your Tot be sure to print two of these patterns found over at PreKinders!

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!