This open-ended snowflake craft is a wonderful winter project for kids.
Because my kids are just 3 and 3.5 years old, I tend to plan craft activities that are very open ended, meaning that I am much more focused on the process than the product. Given that, I worry less about what the final result of the craft looks like and more about fostering my kids’ creativity, curiosity, and learning as they engage with the project.
Note: For more winter crafts your kids will love, see my Winter Activities for Kids page.
For this open-ended snowflake craft, I gathered the following materials:
- Craft sticks
- Glue
- Buttons
- Colored pom poms
- Sequins
The kids sat down at the table with their trays and immediately went to work gluing three craft sticks together to form a “snowflake.”
Then, they used the various items at their disposal to decorate their snowflakes. Both XGirl and QBoy chose to add buttons first.
But it wasn’t long before they began adding pom poms.
And a sequin or two even made its way on to their snowflakes.
And here are the end results!
Of course, the end results might not closely resemble anything we know of as a snowflake, but QBoy and XGirl practiced a lot of skills while making these open-ended snowflake crafts. For example:
- Fine motor skills (squeezing the glue, placing the items on the snowflakes
- Tactile sense (touching and comparing soft pom poms, hard and smooth buttons, sticky glue, smooth wood)
- Creative expression (planning out what materials they wanted to add to their snowflakes)
- Language development (talking about what items they want to put on their snowflakes)
- Chemistry (when glue is wet the items can be picked off, but when glue is dry the items get stuck)
- Math (forming angles with the craft sticks, counting the number of craft sticks used)
More winter learning resources
More posts about snowflakes from Gift of Curiosity:
- Crystallized snowflakes
- Snowflake crafts for kids
- Open ended snowflake craft
- Learning about snowflakes
For more winter crafts your kids will love, see my Winter Activities for Kids page and my Winter Activities Pinterest Board.
Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Winter Activities on Pinterest.
Products used in this post:
Tracey@We-Made-That says
January 10, 2013 at 4:35 amI love this project, we have made these before and the kids always have so much fun making them. And it is a great way for them to use their imagination along with several motor skillls. Thanks for sharing on We Made That!
Katie says
January 14, 2013 at 8:23 pmThanks! The kids sure had fun with this project.
Sugar Aunts says
January 12, 2013 at 4:17 pmLooks like so much fun, great work of those fine motor skills! Thanks for sharing on Share it Saturday!
Stephanie says
January 14, 2013 at 6:12 pmFirst off…I really like the name of your blog! Secondly the open ended snowflake was a great idea. Wish I’d seen it before the holiday break for Christmas crafts. I only had time for one per child but this would have been a great. Maybe this year… thanks for sharing!
Katie says
January 14, 2013 at 8:23 pmThanks for stopping by. This was simple but fun, so if you do get around to it I hope your kids enjoy it as much as mine did!
Katie says
January 14, 2013 at 8:24 pmYep, we always like to work on fine motor skills around here! 🙂
Carrie says
January 17, 2013 at 4:31 pmAlways love this one!! To make things easier try glue dots to hold the sticks. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!