Tuck This Away

If your classroom is anything like mine, then your kiddos are usually VERY hyper before winter break.  I also work at a school where you are NOT allowed to celebrate Christmas.  Back in the day, I remember having a tree in my classroom and we got to decorate our classroom door.  Gone are those days. 

I got this GRAND idea last year, when I searching on-line fun winter activities in the classroom.  It didn't take a lot of materials, time, and it seemed like fun so I thought I would give it a shot.  The kids, and I, LOVED it!!!

Snowman Creations

Split the class up into 5 or 6 groups (there should only be around 5-5 kids within each group). 

Supplies for each group:
- A large piece of construction paper in black, orange, red, and green.
- Scissors
- Roll of masking tape
- 2 rolls of toilet paper (doesn't have to be an expensive brand, but you don't want it too cheap that it breaks when the kids are using it).

Give groups 2 minutes of planning time when they don't have the materials.  They will need to decide who is the person who will be wrapped up as the snowman, who will be cutting out materials, who will be taping, and who will be wrapping. 

Then they will get 15 minutes to go at it.  You can probably stretch it out to 20 minutes but you don't want to give it too much time because they will lose focus.  You will also want to have enough space in your classroom so groups can spread out.  We used an empty classroom this year, but last year we just pushed our desks to the side. 

Our guest judge is always the principal.  She always does a good job walking around and complimenting each group's snowman and then she announces the winner.

It's a ton of fun and it's neat to see their creation.  This year we had a group create a snowman with "bling" on it.  I would have to say this is an upper grade activity for sure!