We love winters. Well who doesn’t? And specially if it arrives in a country that is famous for it’s sand dunes, blistering summer months and last only for 4-5 months, it calls for a grand celebration of sorts. Also considering Little A’s winter break is fast approaching and we’d be staying here in Dubai instead of taking a regular vacation to our home country, I wanted to gear up for winter craft activities that are fun making while we learn a thing or two. You have another reason to keep an eye on this blog for some winter DIYs in coming couple of months.
Since Little A started kindergarten this September, we never got down to doing a craft activity though the learning never stopped either through cooking, reading, painting, coloring, moving around the city or playing. He attends nursery 5 days a week and the weekends usually go by in a breeze leaving us with little or no time to do a real do-it-yourself exercise at home like before. So, I really looked forward to UAE National Holidays to do something worthy and interesting.
Unfortunately on the first day of the holiday Little A fell sick with temperature rising as high as 104F at one point in the night and have been under the weather because of the changing climate in the city. The next day, as he felt better I took out my craft supplies and asked if he’d like to join in. He sprung up to his feet and came excitedly to a corner of the room where I sat on a plastic sheet with materials for making a Snowman. In UAE we don’t get a snowfall although I have always been a sucker for white Christmas – snow everywhere, mufflers, houses covered in snow, boots; so I ask what’s not to love? We don’t even celebrate Christmas but I love embracing all religions, their customs, traditions and festivals and this is what I’d like Little A to inherit from me – appreciate and respect all religions of the world. A few weeks back he stuck pieces of cotton onto the patterned Snowman on a paper in his nursery and have since then been asking me to practice the same at home. We even did it a few times but then it started getting boring. He understand what a Snowman is and what is it synonym for. He has heard stories from his new book about a Snowman that is build by a boy one wintery night from snow and how he comes to life in the night. Now, this piece of art has become our story-telling prop too!
What better then to kick start our winter craft with a Snowman DIY that Little A now is friends with. This craft is simple to do for toddlers and involves sticking which Little A loves to do. There aren’t many supplies needed too for this but just a few that may be lying around the house. Here’s what you need and how you do it -
Supplies needed -
- Old socks – 1 white and 1 colored.
- Thermocol or disposable white cup – 1
- Black buttons – 4
- Black marker
- Cotton balls – few
- String
- Glue
- Craft Scissors
- A long piece of discarded cloth to make a muffler (I used a small piece of my old stole/scarf).
Instructions -
- Ask your toddler to fill the bottom of the white sock with cotton till it start resembling a face. Adjust the cotton inside to make a circle and tie with a string.Cut just few inches below the string so that it looks like a round ball. Draw eyes and mouth with a marker.
- Place the thermocol cup upside down and put glue on top of the cup. Place snowman with a tied side down and allow it to stick to the cup.
- Put inside the colored sock a couple of cotton balls and tie with a string to make a hat. Place the hat on the head of the snow man.
- Stick the black buttons on the front side of the thermocol cup.
- Tie the discarded cloth around the neck of the snowman to make a muffler and hide any faults at the area of sticking. Voila! You are done!
