Inside: This simple toddler snowman art activity includes adding felt letters, exposing them to the alphabet in a fun, hands-on way!
Some of our 2 year olds and young 3 year olds have been showing interest in letters.
We don’t formally teach letters to this age group, but we love to provide activities that expose them to the alphabet. A perfect example is our alphabet construction sensory bin and our ABC soup sensory bin. They are hands-on and playful!
I also love to add literacy to the art table.
That leads me to this post.
I decided to add some literacy while making super simple snowmen.
And then I sat back and observed the playful learning that took place while they constructed them.
Toddler Snowman Art Activity that Builds Early Literacy Skills
What we used:
- Fabric letters
- Paper cut into circles – 2 different sizes
- Scraps of construction paper
- Googly eyes
- Yarn
- Glue
Assembling the snowmen:
- Cut 2 different sizes of circles from the paper (one set for each child)
- Glue the smaller circle on top of the larger one
- Place the scraps of construction paper and other pieces on a tray
Before inviting the children to make their snowman, read a snowman picture book with them at circle time.
Invite your toddlers to apply glue to their snowmen.
I don’t normally hand a bottle of glue to a 2 year old, as they will simply want to squeeze as much glue out as they can. However, since I was standing right there, and this little guy really wanted to do it himself, I let him squeeze the bottle himself.
For like a moment.
And then I told him he had enough glue on it.
Because he truly would have kept on going!
If your toddler is new to using glue, it might take awhile to learn how to place the pieces on top of the glue. And don’t be surprised if your toddler then wants to pull everything off.
Since we are almost halfway through the school year, we are beyond that stage.
But that’s how we started.
Oh, and see that small button? Yeah, don’t use those with toddlers unless you are very carefully supervising. I know this sounds like common sense, but I have to say it anyways.
Several of the toddlers stopped what they were doing to simply play with the letters.
They lined them up, they put them back in the bowl, dumped them out, lined them up again.
In fact, for some of the children, this was the highlight of the activity.
They loved those little fabric letters!
I helped them find some letters in their names, and then they added others.
And yes, I did raid the scrap box for this activity. I love being able to use leftovers!
And yes, you did see those flowers in our spring math activity!
Add some eyes and hair, and there you go.
No two look alike.
Fun toddler snowman art!
Here’s another fun winter art activity for toddlers!
Easy Toddler Snowball Prints
More Activities:
Planning your toddler winter theme? We’ve done the work for you!
I’m so excited to be one of the 5 co-authors of an entire series of toddler lesson plans.
These winter lesson plans for toddlers focus on hands-on, multi-sensory, low-prep activities. This theme contains 20 activities designed to help you reach the skills for your toddler throughout the year. We’ve done the activity planning so you don’t have to!
Here’s a look at the skills covered in the lesson plans:
- Counting
- Pre-writing
- Literacy
- Social and Emotional Well Being
- Shapes
- Number Sense
- Music
- Gross-Motor
- Fine-Motor
- and much more!
What you will find inside:
Skills: a detailed skills list to help you visualize the development in the activity.
Materials: Items to gather before doing the activity
How to: Best read before the activity is prepared to understand how to present it and have toddler engage in the activity.
Extensions: A place to see all the suggestions the teachers have made to take this activity a little further. Or make it simpler.
Modifications: Things that can be added or switched out in the activity.
CLICK HERE for more information!
