Service Project: Create snowflakes with kind sayings on them
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $5
Duration: 1 hour (this includes drying time if you are using glue)
Lesson(s) learned: Kindness to others
How we did it:
This project gives your child an opportunity to do something kind for someone in their life. Get the conversation started by asking them who displays kindness to them. What a great way to get a glimpse into what kindness “looks like” to them. Perhaps it’s the grocery clerk that helps your family out to your car. They might want to recognize the kindness of their siblings (okay, you can stop laughing now!). The wonderful thing about this project is that they can give individual, customized snowflakes out to whomever they want to show kindness to. I’ve been talking to Addie quite a bit about what friendship means, so she decided to give snowflakes to her teachers at school.
What you will need:
Popsicle sticks (The ones that look like tongue depressors)
Mini Popsicle sticks
Paint brushes
Paint
Glue
Small sparkly dots and/or glitter
Small rectangle wood sign (optional)
Addie helped me set up our work area. We covered it in paper towels to protect the counter. Then we set out enough Popsicle sticks to make 5 snowflakes. This equated to 1 regular sized Popsicle stick and 4 mini Popsicle sticks per 1 fully assembled snowflake (1 big stick + 4 mini sticks = 1 Snowflake). See how great I am at equations? Now, what I can’t explain is why my daughter has this crooked, cheesy grin every time I ask her to smile for the camera. Oh well.
I had Addie use a foam paint brush since I thought it would be easier for her to sponge the paint onto the tiny sticks. After she finished her first one, she said, “Ta Da!”
As Addie was painting the mini Popsicle sticks blue, I painted the larger sticks silver. You can do so much with this project so get creative! You can paint all the sticks different colors. You can color them with pens. You can put stickers on them. Sky’s the limit!
After all the sticks were painted, I painted the small wood board. This piece is optional. I used it to make a small sign to go with the “collage” of snowflakes that we planned to deliver. If your child’s intent is to deliver the snowflakes to individual people, this step won’t be needed.
Wait about ten minutes for the paint to thoroughly dry and then you’ll be ready to start assembling and decorating. This was Addie’s favorite part!
Step 1: Put adhesive or glue on one end of a large Popsicle stick and place a mini Popsicle stick diagonally across the top, as shown.
Step 2: Place adhesive/glue in the middle of the first mini Popsicle stick and place another mini Popsicle stick on top of it, diagonally going the opposite way. You should now have a “X” at the top of your large Popsicle stick.
Step 3: Place another drop of adhesive/glue in the middle of the second mini Popsicle stick and place a third mini Popsicle stick on top of it, horizontally.
Step 4: Place more adhesive/glue in the middle of the newly placed third mini Popsicle stick and place the fourth mini Popsicle stick on top of it, laterally. You now should have four mini Popsicle sticks arranged to look like a snowflake. Yippee! Now comes the fun stuff! Decorating!
You can use the following pictures and descriptions as examples in decorating the snowflakes, however, I highly encourage your child to channel their inner artist! It’s likely that throughout the process of assembling the snowflake, you and your child were talking about who would be receiving them. Challenge your child to reflect on that individual’s interests. Does their speech therapist love rainbows? Incorporate that theme somehow!
Addie liked these blue, sparkly dots that we had in our craft drawer, so we started by putting those on the tips of the snowflakes. At 2 years old, she assumes that everyone will like it if it sparkles. I’m not going to argue with her.
Instead of utilizing the sparkly dots that we fished out of our craft bins, Addie wanted to use glitter. Hey, I’m all for improvising! So I lined up the snowflake sticks and we squeezed glue, in various patterns, on each snowflake. We left the middle one, with the sparkly dots, as our “sparkly dot snowflake,” as Addie liked to call it.
Addie picked out 4 different colors of glitter and for the next few minutes it was all about shaking them!
This is what it looked like once we had given them a good coat of glitter. We let the glue dry for about 5 minutes (we used thin lines of glue). Drying time will take longer for thicker lines or dots of glue.
This is where you really want your child to customize each snowflake to the individual that will be receiving it. We gave a group of 5 snowflakes to Addie’s teachers. She attends a Montessori school so we chose words inspired by that teaching philosophy. I would recommend that your child sign and date the back of the snowflake stick since this will be a wonderful keepsake for any lucky recipient!
This is how Addie’s group of 5 snowflakes turned out. Pretty! The words that we used were; nature, beauty, peace, love and learning.
Optional: Write a nice note on the piece of painted wood to accompany your snowflake(s).
Addie left her collage of Snowflake Sentiments in the teacher’s lounge at her school. What a wonderful surprise it’s going to be for them!
Addie had a lot of fun with this project! I love how this project encourages your child to think about the people in their life that impact them positively. It naturally guides them to choosing simple words or phrases to express their appreciation.
Have fun with your Snowflake Sentiments!