Puffy Snowmen

I was looking on Pinterest for a fun art project to do with my son’s first grade class when I came across a post for a puffy snowman from Alison at Oopsey Daisy who got it from Jadi at Homemaking Fun who saw it on Krafty Kid. Where, or if, it was posted before that I have no idea but this was just what I was looking for.

My Samples

First I have to say that a project with both shaving cream and white glue is a recipe for trouble in a class with 21 first graders. When I discussed this with the teacher, Mrs S, I came with a tamer neater “Plan B project “ also as a backup. Mrs S. is great though and she was all for these snowmen.

This is how we did this project...
 

First, before class, I cut black hats and orange triangles from paper scraps and strips from leftover fleece scraps. I tied a knot and cut fringe in one end of each strip. This didn't take long since 4-5 of each were cut at a time.

The snow was made with equal parts of shaving cream and white glue. Hint: To judge what equal is, use a container you can see through... like a clear plastic cup, a glass mixing bowl, etc. For the class I used empty ice cream buckets. This makes it easier to see how much space the glue takes and double that for the shaving cream. Not an exact science but it worked. Fold the shaving cream into the glue.

In class  the kids creased the hats between the top and the brim to give them more dimension.

They twisted the orange triangles into "carrots" and cut or tore paper for eyes, buttons and other parts.

Then came time to play in the snow. First they used a scrap paper and had fun with the texture and feel of glue and shaving cream mix.

Then each of them were given a piece of blue mat board so they could create their snowmen. These were scraps leftover from mats cut for paintings. Most frame shops have lots of mat scraps that they usually just throw away.

Here are some of their wonderful creations...

-Joanne