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Kinders paint a snowman and use painted paper to add details

Eric Carle inspired Snowman Art Lesson

K

There is nothing cuter than a snowman, except a “kinder-created” snowman. Watching little fingers stick paper noses and top hats to wet paint is utterly adorable. Since most of my students have never seen snow (Santa Barbara!), I talk about how to make a snowman, focus on the big, medium and small concept that is just perfect for Kinders.

Art Supplies: 

– Colored 12″ x 18″ colored construction (or drawing) paper

– White tempera paint (don’t thin with any water)

– Assorted Painted Paper Scraps

– Black oil pastel

– Glue sticks, scissors

This is What We Did:

Place a container of white tempera paint and large brushes on each table. Set out table protectors if you wish and then a blue or purple paper on top of that (or whatever color you like). Ask the children to paint the snow first, then the series of snowballs, beginning with the largest (bottom) and finishing with the smallest (head).

As the kids add snowflakes (using the back of their brushes), place a tray of painted paper (perhaps from a previous lesson) or colored printed paper, scissors, glue stick and a black oil pastel on the table.

Demonstrate how to cut out a top hat, scarf, nose, etc. For this age, I focus on shapes: triangle for nose, a square and a rectangle for the hat, etc. If a child wants to tear some pieces, I let ’em go at it, but for the most part, every detail or embellishment is cut out. If they paste an item off the edge of the paper…so what? Makes it cuter, don’t you think?

Kinder Snowman!

Kinders paint a snowman and use painted paper to add details


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  • Kelly

    Ohhh! Soooo cute! I can't wait to do this with my daughters. 🙂

  • bchmomx3

    This is going on my to do list this week. My children will love it and it is a great way to use up some of my scrap paper.

  • tweedy

    Adorable! I did marshmallow painting with my kinders this year…same concept, but we used "big" marshmallows for the snowmen and the smaller ones for snow around. We just added the details with marker later.

  • tweedy

    Oh and I forgot to say that I *love* the addition of purple paper and wonder why I never thought of it. Really adds another dimension to the project! (I've been on spring break this week and have had lots of extra time to play on your blog!)

  • chewy

    I Googled "Eric Carle" and happily landed here. What a fun blog! Love all the projects.

  • andrea

    how many days did this take? they are awesome!

    • Patty

      Hi Andrea,
      Not many. The paint part is very fast and cutting out the accessories is equally fast, providing you organize the paper first. Plan on two 30-minute classes to be safe.

  • Kara

    I love your art lessons! I am a special education teacher and was assigned an art class this year. The only problem being I have zero experience in this area! My students have cognitive difficulties and very limited skills, so your kindergarten and first grade projects are perfect! Thanks so much for sharing, I am taking lots of notes!

  • lori brown

    I did a snowman lesson with model magic and texture plates. Then cut the details from painted or construction paper.

  • Angela

    Thanks for your blog! I homeschool my kids and art is my weakness, but I have found lots of fun ideas here. I think we are going to try this one!

  • Melissa

    This is so great to see… And a little surprising too! I “came up” with this idea a couple of weeks ago and was really pleased with with the results. We’ve been doing a variety of winter-themed projects in my art class and I LOVE to incorporate Eric Carle’s modified techniques in at least few of my classes. I had my students use a variety of texture tools to create the paper that would be used for all portions of the snowmen and his/her accessories and features. When everything was dry I traced circles for the students to cut out to make the snowman’s “bones.” After the pieces of the snowman and the snow on the ground were glued to their painted background paper, students were free to cut and create all of the snowman’s colorful accessories. I was so happy with them that I sent them home before taking pictures. Phooey!

  • Erica

    As a non artsy homeschool mom, Thank You! I love your blog. The lessons are creative, colorful, and doable. Thank you so much for sharing your gift.

  • Mary Kay Self

    Love this , going to dk with my Pre-K early Childhood class for Winter Theme

  • Cat

    I did this for art docent for my child’s kindergarten class and they turned out SO adorable!! I loved the different sizes and shapes the kids did; some very big snowmen, some smaller ones, some very big top hats, some tiny ones. Overall very cute and fun.

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