Listen to this song.

This song, with accompanying lessons, is available on Stephanie Burton's "Math Magic for Ages 3-7."

Themes
     Winter
     Seasons
     Water/Snow/Ice
     Circles

Manipulatives
     Duplicate and cut out these pictures (included in Math Magic) to use with the suggested activities on the following pages. They may be colored or painted with watercolors. We suggest you laminate the teacher’s set so that they last.

Circle Time Math Activities
     Singing the song: Using the flannelboard, chalkboard, Velcro® board or the floor, introduce this activity by placing the snowmen on board. Without counting aloud, ask the children to estimate how many snowmen they think there are. Count them aloud with the students and then choose a child to find the correct corresponding numeral. Place the numeral on the board. As you sing the song, remove each snowman as the song instructs. At the end, add the four snowmen to the one left standing so that, once again, there are five.

     Matching snowmen: Copy and cut out several snowmen that match the five you put on the board in the previous activity. Pass out one snowman to each child. Place one of the five snowmen up on the board. Ask the children to see if they have a matching snowman. If they have a match, invite them to place it next to yours. Remove these and put up a different snowman. Repeat the activity until each child has had a chance to match one of the five.

Movement Math Activites
     Musical Hats: Work on one-to-one correspondence with children by playing this game. You will need a CD player or tape player, music and one hat for each child. It is best if each hat can be different. Place all the hats in a pile in the middle of the room. When the music plays, the children parade around the room.
      When the music stops each child puts on a hat. Look around the room and see if each child has a hat. If there is still a hat on the ground, the children find who does not have one and make sure he/she gets one. Before the music starts again, the children toss their hats into the center. The next time the music stops they each need to pick out a hat that they have not worn before.

     Dramatize the song: Choose 5 children to be the snowmen. Provide them with funny hats to make it more fun. Pick another child to represent the sun to melt each one. He/She can hold up a big yellow circle over the snowman that needs to melt. The other children can pretend to build new snowmen at the end of the song.

Touch and Tell Math Activites
     For these activities, each child will be given a zip-top bag with duplicated and cut out pictures from the manipulative page of this chapter (included in Math Magic).

     Singing the song: Copy 5 snowmen for each child and place them in a zip-top bag. Tape the words to the song on the cover of the bag. Children may either use their own activity bag as you sing this together in class or they may take them home to use with their family.
     Variation: Children may use their own activity bag at a learning center and recreate the song or make up their own sorting/ matching game.

     Subtraction and Addition Game: Each child brings their activity bag to the circle. They lay out their five snowmen in a row. Count to be sure there are five. Tell the children that the hot sun came out and melted two. The children should take away two and tell you how many are left. Now tell them that the sun came out again and melted two more. How many are left now. Explain that it just started snowing and some children built 3 snowmen (they put three back up.) How many are there now? You can play this addition and subtraction game over and over using different quantities to add or subtract.

Learning Center Math Activites
The following activities can be used individually or with a small group of children.

     Create Snowmen Indoors: On a snowy day, bring snow indoors in a large tub. Provide large trays for the children to work on while they build their own snowmen. As the snow begins to melt, they will notice that the snow compacts differently and as the snowmen melt they change shape. If you do not live where it snows, you can use an ice shaving machine and invite the children to make shaved ice snowmen.

     Paper Snowmen: Provide the children with white cut-out circles in several different sizes or traced circles that they may cut out themselves. They can build their own snowman by gluing 3 circles on a larger piece of paper. They can choose from an assortment of collage items to add arms, legs, and facial features as well as a funny hat. Encourage older children to sequence the circles according to size, placing the largest one on the bottom.

     Soap Snowmen. Create soap snowmen using Ivory Snow® and water. Encourage the children to help you measure and mix using ¼ cup Ivory Snow® laundry soap and 1-2 Tablespoons of water per child in a large bowl. The children can mix this with their hands until they can mold it into balls. They can roll three balls and stack them on top of each other on a piece of cardboard or a paper plate. Use toothpicks, pipe cleaners, twigs, buttons and raisins for features.

Graph Activity
(Included in Math Magic)

Take-Home Math Activity
(Included in Math Magic)

This song, with accompanying lessons, is available on Stephanie Burton's "Math Magic for Ages 3-7."

Many thanks to Stephanie Burton for permission to display these lyrics and extension activites.
© Panda Bear Publications. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

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