Math Projects on Snowmen

Keep their attention with a fun snowman math problem.

Kids might prefer to be out building snowmen rather than learning math on a wintery day. Using math projects based around snowmen will help them to concentrate. When they finish their fun snowman "game," they may not even realize they have just had a math lesson.

Snowman Button Match

The Making Learning Fun website provides a snowman picture with three spaces for buttons. Make a similar picture, or print copies of the one provided. Laminate the pictures and give them to the children with a selection of real buttons, or differently colored round game counters. Get the children to find three buttons that are the same to complete the snowman image. Ensure that each child has at least three buttons, or counters, that are identical in their collection. This is a simple project for really young children. It will help them start to think numerically as they look for the three required buttons.

Snowman Sizing Activity

Another idea for little ones is to collect the lids from many different sized cans. The lids must be cut off with a can opener that does not leave sharp edges; jar lids would be a safe alternative. Paint the lids white and stick self-adhering magnets on the back. Get the children to build snowmen on a metal surface, with three lids of their choice. This will help them understand about relative sizing as they learn that the best snowmen are built with the largest lid as the base, topped by a medium and then a smaller lid.

A different version of this activity is useful for teaching middle-school kids about fractions. Get them to build a clay snowman, discussing how they are using half of the clay for the base, a quarter for the body and an eighth for the head, leaving an eighth for hats, noses and other accessories.

Snowman Dress Up

For kids of 3 or a little older, Snowman Dress Up templates are available on the First School website, or you can use your own version. The snowman image is surrounded by three hats and three scarves of different colors. Get the children to help cut out the snowman and six clothes items with child-safe scissors. Now allow them to experiment, mixing and matching the hats and scarves to see how many outfits they can make. After a while, give them some guidance. Tell them they can create nine outfits from the six pieces. Through discussion, help them draw up a list of the nine combinations. Children of 6-plus years could be given nine copies of the black-and-white snowman template (without accessories) and asked to draw each outfit as the list is made.

Frosty's Snowball Path

This will help older children learn about skip counting. Tackling an easy but often-used number, when it comes to skip counting, this project teaches counting in fives. The Mathwire.com website has a printout for this project, but make your own if you like. "Frosty" is at the top left of the picture and a series of 20 circles, representing snowballs, lead in a reversed S-shape to an igloo at the bottom right-hand corner. The 20 snowballs represent lots of five. Numbers 5, 10, 20, 25, 40, 50, 65, 75 and 100 are already in place. The children need to complete the line of numbers up to 100 for Frosty to reach his igloo.

References

• Making Learning Fun: Snowman Button Match
• Making Learning Fun: Snowman Sizing Activity
• First School: Snowman Dress Up
• Mathwire: Frosty 5
• Study 24-7: Math Projects for Middle School Students