How to make three different Snow-Persons -

There are many many many art lessons/projects on the web with the snowman or snow-person theme. There are some that focus on point of view, perspective, value, form, etc. So really-how can I make it different? Well I have. I have developed and instructed several different lessons with the snow-person theme. These have occurred over several years for several different ages and supplies. Below you will find art lessons that discuss how to make three different snow-persons.

It is winter and children are waiting for snow. Do you remember the days that you enjoyed the snow too. As a child, did you go out in the freezing snow and play for hours? How about the snowmen? Did you make a snow-person? Art elements like form, texture, and color play well together when making these frozen sculptures. Art teachers use the snowman or snow-person often each year to teach the art elements. So lets get into the art elements and 3 snow-person lessons for kids.

Lesson One: Textured Snow-Person

Peck the paper:

To start, you will need colored paper, white paint, and moist cut up sponges. Students dip the sponge into the paint and tap or pat the sponge onto the paper surface in a circular motion. If they swipe it back and forth and up and down, the texture will not be as nice. By “pecking the paper like a chicken” with the sponge, the circles look more crystal-like. They look more porous like s snow ball for the snow-person.

While the paper dries, students do a series of texture rubbings. Use crayons and plastic texture rubbing plates or have students use other surfaces in the instructional space. These may include walls, bottoms of shoes, rugs, and more to get a range of textures. Also they may want to focus on specific colors or patterns while they color across the rubbings.

When they are finished, they will cut out hats and scarves. Now you may have tracers available for the students so they get the correct size. Many students are familiar with the top hat idea for a hat, which translates into a square and two rectangles. But there are other hats in which they could make with half-circles and triangles.

Collage accessories to personalize the snow-person.

Once all the paint dries and the hat and scarf shapes are cut, students may collage items onto the snow-person to personalize them. Here is where the you may need to have sorted and pre-cut materials available for students to share and sort for their own use. Collage components may include fabric cut triangles for noses, buttons, yarn for mouths, sequences, and more. Even boxes of scrap construction or craft paper are helpful for making more fancy items like flowers, feathers, and arms.

Lesson Two: Mixed-Media-Collage Snow-Person

Fabric scarps are fun:

Collage completed with sponge painted body.

Fabric scraps are so fun to use. Parents have donated scraps, interior designers have donated outdate samples. And PTA may give funds to purchase some fabric. As mentioned the fabric has a different texture and pattern, which makes it fun. However, I have discovered that young students have difficulty cutting the fabric with regular every day kids size scissors. So the choices are to precut the strips of fabric or have a separate set of scissors for fabric.

So like lesson one, these snow-persons are also including texture. But they have other component of collage and painted papers. It is more open ended with much more supplies. Oil pastels, texture rubbing plates, and fabrics are provided for the students to assemble.

You choose if you are going to have pre-cut circle shapes from the felt. Or if you will have students sponge paint the snow-person body. Note that they examples above show both. In addition, They show two snow ball shapes instead of the customary three. This is because the paper is 9″ X 12″. By having only two, they may focus on the facial features.

Lesson Three: Snow-Person in Form

Let’s get more 3D:

Many snowmen art lesson are flat-2D. So let’s get more 3D with this lesson. You could use plaster gauze, paper Mache’, or air dry clay. Kids really like the 3 dimensional exploration in art. It is like they are making their very own toys. Now a key aspect to this lesson is the collection of thin natural sticks and making sure there are holes to attach the stick arms before the medium dries. In addition, a glue gun is handy to be sure those arms do not fall out.

Hats:

Hats for snow-persons as mentioned earlier do not have to be the top hat style. In fact, those are very difficult to instruct to students on how to make for this activity. Some options are origami folding hats, party hats with a cone, or a crown made like a paper chain. All these hat choices are successful and produce a wide range of characters.

Faces:

You should post a variety of images that depict possible faces for the snow-persons. By doing so, the students will have more confidence and not have to pull from their memory. They will have success and that is a wonderful feeling at ages 6-8. Markers, sharpies, and paint will work on all the media that these snow-persons could be made from.

A wild lesson concept

Snowmen or Snow-Persons are part of the winter excitement. Snow becomes a modeling medium. Parents and children work to sculpt the snow into forms and then stack them to make these snow-people. Now as an art teacher, it would be a wild lesson to take students out into the snow and give the challenge to groups of students to build a sculpture of a snow-person. Could you imagine the scene?

How to make three different Snow-Persons