I love teaching math, and since I teach young children, I am always looking for ways to make math fun, and hands-on. With the snow on the ground, the children are constantly talking about snowmen! I created these kindergarten worksheets for a simple Roll and Build a Snowman game and my students loved it!

Although I used this activity in a kindergarten classroom, I also used it at home with my own children who are older. Typically anything hands-on, kids are eager to try out!

Materials

You don’t need any special materials and most of the materials you do need, you probably already have around the house.

• Circular Cotton Swabs (3 for each child playing)
• Googly Eyes (2 for each child playing)
• Hat Cut Outs
• Carrot Nose Cut Outs
• Scarf Cut Outs (Or a piece of string)
• Buttons
• Pip cleaners or Twigs
• Dice

For the hat and carrot nose cut outs, I used foam paper. For the scarf I cut pieces of felt. If you don’t have felt or foam, you can simply use construction paper for both of these snowman pieces.

Even the circular cotton swabs could simply be white circles cut out of paper. Use what you have on hand to keep it simple.

Before you start, make sure to print off the FREE “Roll and Build a Snowman” sheet. (Link at bottom of this post.)

Since I did this activity with young children, before they played the games I gave them a chance to explore and create with the snowmen materials. Children created their snowman by choosing all of the pieces they wanted to use.

This way they were familiar with the materials and how to create their snowman.

How to Play

Since I did this in the classroom, I started by explaining how to play the game. On the carpet, I modeled our game with everyone before handing out the materials.

The idea is very simple, and even young children will be able to figure out how to play very quickly. The activity is a great mix of hands-on math and a little bit of art as children create their snowman.

All players begin with their snowman body, which is made up of 3 circular cotton swabs.

Step 1

Roll the die and find the number on the Roll and Build a Snowman worksheet.

Step 2

Find the material for the number that was rolled. For example, if you roll a 1, you will get a hat for your snowman and put it on your top circular cotton swab.

Step 3

The next player then rolls the die. They choose the material for the number they rolled and add it to their snowman.

If you roll a number twice on the die, such as the number 1, the player basically loses their turn and it becomes the next players turn.

To make it more fun with young children, I allowed them to switch the hat for a different color if they wanted to if they rolled a number that they didn’t need.

Step 4

Keep rolling and creating the snowmen. The first player to complete their snowman wins.

A completed snowman includes, a hat, two eyes, a nose, scarf, two arms and 2 buttons.

As children played they had a copy of the ‘Roll and Build a Snowman’ sheet beside them to tell them what piece of the snowman to add depending what they roll.

The children were so excited to create their snowman. I loved the fact that they were doing math and recognizing the dots as numbers and amounts very quickly as they played.

Using the dice children went around the table taking turns to roll the die and build their snowman.

Kindergarten Worksheets

The worksheet that I used for this activity is available below for free in color and black and white. The kindergarten worksheets works well to encourage children to have to recognize the dots on the page and then find the item that it corresponds to.

This was a great hands-on learning experience for kids that easily incorporated our math lesson for the day.

Extension Ideas

Children loved creating their snowman over and over again as they played the game. If you have a group that would do better not competing with their peers to complete their snowman, you can always simply give each child a die and have them roll and create independently.

You could also have children play with a partner to create their snowmen together.

I have also used the Roll and Build a Snowman idea with older children. Since they did not need review of recognizing the numbers on the die, we worked on addition and subtraction.

I gave children a addition or subtraction question, and their answer corresponded to one of the materials for them to add to create their snowman. For example, instead of rolling a die, I gave the problem, 9-3.

Children worked to solve the problem and when they got the correction answer, 6, they then added a button to their snowman.

Even for older children you could change up the math problems that you give them to create their snowman. Some of the answers may not lead to a piece for their snowman, such as 17-8, but children have to solve the problem to know that it does not give them a piece.

FREE Kindergarten Worksheets

The worksheet that I used for this activity is available in my FREE Resource Library, full of free printables available to all subscribers of Hands-On Teaching Ideas. Subscribe to gain access to receive emails with my latest blog posts and freebies.

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