Day Five: Five Little Snowmen
Today’s giveaway has been a favorite in our house for years. Fingerplays and rhymes offer so many benefits while drawing children right in. Fingerplays allow for children to explore language with movement, coordination and play. Children are able to experience the rhythm of language while hearing new vocabulary and rhyme. Counting rhymes, such as the one featured here, even add in number sense and opportunities to explore quantities and counting. Plus they are just so catchy. That’s why no matter how old we get, we still remember “The Itsy, Bitsy Spider” or “Hickory Dickory Dock” and other classics.
This resource includes a printable copy of “The Five Little Snowmen.” There is a copy of a sun and five snowmen to use along with the text. For the activity pictured, I simply cut out the snowmen and the sun to make a set of cards. We laid out the cards in front of us and went through the rhyme (about 15 times in a row lol). Then my little one decided they needed faces, so it turned into a coloring activity too.
Over the years, we have used this rhyme as a fingerplay. To add in movement, we use the five fingers on one hand to represent the snowmen. When they stay “out in the sun” we make a circle above our heads. Then use 1 finger to show the “one little snowman melted away".”
Another favorite is our felt board story. I made a set of 5 felt snowmen and a felt sun. We use the felt pieces to act out our story as we say the rhyme. You can read more about the felt version of the Five Little Snowmen here.
No matter how you choose to incorporate the rhyme, you can’t go wrong. I’d love to hear how it goes. You can share your ideas in the comments or tag me on social media @Play Beyond the Lines.