Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

I live in the frigid Midwest and honestly, winter is a little too long and gloomy for me.  BUT, what can ya do?  Can't change the weather, but... you CAN make bright wintry art projects to brighten up the halls!  :)  It helps the Winter go by a tiny bit faster.
Speaking of- I just found out that Groundhog's Day is on February 2 because it's the exact half-way mark between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox!  Who knew?  We're half way done with winter!  Bring on the Spring, baby!
So anyway, I found this art project somewhere on the Internet years ago... sorry, don't recall where, but I wanted to share it with everyone because it's so simple and cheery!

You could skip this beginning part, but we started by studying snowflakes and reading the story Snowflake Bentley.  He was a real person long ago who showed awesome perseverance and courage working to take photographs of snowflakes: "his gift to the world!"  Aren't they beautiful?!  It fascinates me how unique and intricate they are, yet so tiny and temporary.

 

So then we talk about how to draw snowflakes... all the different ways they can look, yet they have the basic 6-pointed shape.  I give them several examples of simple ways to draw different kinds.

Then, they get a paper that has 9 really faint circles on it.  Inside each circle, they use a white crayon to draw a snowflake.  Make sure they press hard (I wish I had told my class to press harder). You can find this paper for FREE on my TpT store!

Then get out the watercolors.  I modeled this ahead of time for the kids so they knew all the steps they'd be doing and I LOVE this part because they FREAKED OUT!  You paint over the circle with a bright color of paint.  The white crayon resists the color to make the snowflake appear!  Magic!

Finally I matted them on colorful paper and hung them up to display!  

Here are a few examples of their work:

 

 
 

 

Until Spring comes... let it snow! :)