Post by Alexa Rosenbaum, Toneworks intern

While winter break may be over, winter in Minnesota is only just beginning!  Winter has never been my favorite season, but I’ve always loved playing and frolicking in the fresh white snow.  I always smile when I see kids outside building snowmen, and will admit that I very much enjoy singing “Frosty the Snowman” around the holidays.  Since winter is coming no matter what, we might as well embrace it by singing songs about snow!  In addition to being a gross motor movement activity, this intervention can also be used to address goals such as imitation, number identification, counting, and turn taking as well.  I found my snowmen on this site and attached them to a laminated paper background using our ever-trusty industrial Velcro (industrial quality not required).  Although the snowmen are wearing red scarves instead of bows, I use the words below because they rhyme and kids don’t seem to notice the difference.  I start by having everyone count the snowmen together as I point to them on the board.  After we sing through the song and do the movements, we remove one of the snowmen and start all over again.  If you have 5 or less kids in the group, each child can have a turn to remove a snowman, which also provides an incentive to imitate movements and sing along.  If your group is larger,  remove the snowmen yourself to avoid any hurt feelings or conflict amongst peers.  It is easiest to sing this song to the same tune of “5 Little Ducks” using the lyrics below:

Five little snowmen sitting in a row (hold up 5 fingers)

Each with a hat (pat top of head) and a big red bow (pretend to tie bow around neck)

Out cam the sun and shone all day (make arms into circle above head)

And the first little snowman melted away (wiggle fingers while moving hands downwards)

After all the snowmen have melted away, you can put them all back on the hill one at a time and reinforce academic skills while counting aloud!