Winter Story Stretcher: "Snowmen at Night" By Caralyn and Mark Buehner

I don't know how I missed author and illustrator team, Caralyn and Mark Beuner's Snowmen book series until this year, but if you haven't seen them yet, run--don't walk--to your local library! Snowmen at Night is a delightful story written in captivating rhymes that tells the imaginative story of what snowmen do all night long while we're fast asleep. It's always a wonder to come outside in the morning and see your snowman flopping to one side or missing a few parts. S's knowledge of snow science helped him solve the mystery of our own snowman as he melted, but it's still fun to imagine a world where snowmen sled, skate and have snowball fights and baseball games only to return, slightly disheveled to their posts in our yard by morning.

It's so much fun to imagine about this that I thought S in particular would enjoy making his own Snowman at Night story and both boys would love to illustrate it. Most times when we do a story stretcher activity, I begin with the book. But with a book we have already read or sometimes even one we haven't, it's fun to go in reverse order. On the morning we were going to take Snowmen at Night beyond the book, I set out our theme related art activity for Table Time.

The boys were greeted in the morning by 5 little snowmen on display with our target story and black card stock, Crayola Metallic FX Crayons (great for dark backgrounds) and a selection of white crayons, oil pastels and chalk for creating their own nighttime snowmen scene. I also set out some fun snowman and star stickers. Both boys surprised me with their response to this activity. Y loved sticking and re-sticking the snowman face stickers around his paper. He then took a white oil pastel and drew dots of "snow" all around the page. S expressed some anxiety about being "able to draw" a snowman and asked me to do it for him. He does not typically ask for help with artwork when we do more process oriented art. I think the formality of more "directed" drawing threw him off at first--and that was even before he got to the table! I wondered then if I should not have put out my own version on display, but it didn't seem to bother him once he sat down. In fact, with a quick statement of reassurance that there are many right ways to draw about and tell a story and that each person's picture would be different and unique, he sat down and got quite busy. He told a story as he drew and used his stickers about snowmen going to space. He then wanted to know if we had any rocket ship stickers he could use (we did-with robots on them, too!) and added that to his illustration and story.

S was so delightfully proud of his work and his story that he asked to bring it as "show and tell" to our story stretcher time on the rug. Y brought along our snowmen to hear the story as well! Both boys shared their version of the story that I took down as dictation on separate paper. We hung their finished illustrations and dictations on our "museum wall," a space for family artwork along our staircase. Next, we read the story together.

This was a shorter stretcher than some we do. Sometimes if you're short on time, one simple activity is really all you need. If you'd like to do more, incorporate some science and sensory play with Fizzy the Snowman!

We also love this cute little winter fingerplay, sung to the tune of "10 Little Indians:" (note: this is not my own song and I also do not know to whom credit for it is due, but you are welcome to enjoy it as much as we do!)

Five Little Snowmen

Five little snowmen sitting in the snow
Waiting for the winter winds to blow
Along came the sun, and what do you know
Slush, slush, slush and away one goes!

Four little snowmen sitting in the snow...
(continue until the last snowman melts and...)
Slush, slush, slush and away he goes!




You can sing this song with your fingers as snowmen, but I have loved using handmade stick puppets in the past or, this year, little plush snowmen I found at Dollar Tree and a makeshift sun puppet from some recycled artwork we made over the summer. I remember how much S loved this song as a baby and toddler (and he still does). Now it is Y who eagerly carries over the snowmen in their basket, our sun puppet and a laminated song sheet (even though we all have it memorized) so we can sing and act it out again and again!

Whether your world outside is white and wondrous or your only snowmen are indoor versions right now, I hope you're enjoying our Winter Break Story Stretchers so far. We will be back soon with another one and some other great Winter themed play activities to keep you busy at home or the classroom.

Until then, stay warm (not too warm if you happen to be a snowman) and...

Happy Playing!