Snow Sticks!

Last week, we read a classic children's book...The Big Snow.  For a Math activity afterwards, we made "snow sticks." Your children should have some background in non-standard measurement prior to completing this idea.  My class has been doing things with non-standard measurement all year, so the project went very smoothly.  Here's simple directions on how to make these.

1. Gather enough paint sticks for your class.
2. Put students' names on the back with a sharpie.
3. Students paint one side of their stick white.
4. Once sticks are dry, students use unifix cubes to measure 1-inch marks on their sticks.  *NOTE: Model this very explicitly. 
5. Once they finished all their markings (I told them to go to 10), they drew on a face.
6. I passed out sharpies for the students to trace their marks/numbers/faces.
7. Finally, add felt for a scarf, beads, poms, chenille sticks, hats, etc...for "snow clothing." *I did this part myself with a hot glue gun as the students watched "The Snowy Day."  I had them pick out their earmuff colors. 

I did not get bogged down with "perfect" measurements...as long as everyone tried, that was fine by me (let's face it, manipulating a small unifex cub on a narrow paint stick isn't the easiest for even an adult!).  For the most part, no one really needed a lot of assistance. 

The kids loved their snow sticks! Good thing we did them last week! We were finished just in time for a huge snow storm yesterday! I am hoping they went out to measure the snowfall!