The Snowy Day Winter Crafts

I'm about to admit a gaping hole in my children's lit. life: I had never read The Snowy Day until this year. I did not grow up reading the book, nor did I grow up with snow. So, this year I have become a disciple of The Snowy Day. It's the kind of book that I would love to write someday. 

The prose has just the right level of description and meets the young reader on their level. They will also wonder where the snowball in Peter's pocket went. The interplay between the text and the illustrations is really good, especially the pages with the footprints in and out, the stick, the snow falling on his head. This helps young readers learn to use the illustrations when reading. I love the big list of descriptive adjectives used in sequence when Peter climbs the giant hill. 

The illustrations are just gorgeous with a wide range of colors and textures that add to the snowy magic. The end pages with colorful snowflakes inspired a craft Caroline and I did together: Snowy Day snowflakes. 

We have a set of Dot Markers with these exact colors. I did the cutting, and we decorated together. 

I did this one. Can you tell? It's nice to do something together that I also enjoy. 

Then, we hung up the snowflakes right above an air vent so that when the heat runs, they blow like it's snowing. To do this, I tied some yarn to the curtain rod and then stapled the snowflakes onto the yarn. This is something I did when I worked for MSCR and we were displaying students' art at a gallery-like event. 

Caroline said, "The snowflakes look so pretty." 

Another Snowy Day craft we did was to make a snowman out of cotton balls. Admittedly, it was difficult to tell what the thing was when it was completed, but Caroline had a great time getting to use Mommy's cotton balls. 

For this activity, I drew a snowman and put on the glue and Caroline stuck on the cotton balls. Then she wanted to make a dog! And that was much more difficult. haha

Do you love The Snowy Day? Or have any winter-themed crafts? I'd love to hear about them!