Christmas for the Snowmen - art project

I recently pulled out all of our Christmas books for our book basket.  Iron Man wanted to read Christmas for the Snowmen by Wolfram Hanel, which is about three snowmen who are cold and lonely, and go out looking for friendship on Christmas Eve.  It's one of those books that is not necessarily a must-read in the eyes of a parent, but is cute read for kids.  My boys are interested in all things snow right now, and they loved anticipating what would happen as the snowmen ventured into churches, restaurants and back into the dark night.

I struggle with art instruction, but I've been browsing around lately trying to find simple projects that will engage the boys as well as keep us busy when we can't be outside.  Uli Waas's cute and child-friendly illustrations immediately reminded me of this Eric Carle Inspired Snowman Art Lesson, and I knew we could tie the two together for our own snowy creations.

Hulk went with just snowflakes at first, but then was read to try his hand at a snowman!  His snowman is a little more abstract, but that makes it endearing, don't ya think?

I gave the boys their construction paper and some white tempera paint and asked them to paint the ground and a snowman or two.  I showed them how to make snowflakes with q-tips.  Then we went through scrapbook paper scraps to add facial features and accessories.    The snowmen in the book had a great variety of accessories, so it was a good opportunity to point out how there is no "standard" snowman and they could feel free to be creative in his choice of decoration.

This was a great project for working with so many different materials too.  The boys really enjoyed themselves, and I have some cute artwork to display!

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