How to Build a Snowman Writing Craft First Next Last Cut and Glue K-2

About this resource

Build a paper snowman, then write how you built it. Children color and cut out a hat, a face with a carrot nose, a scarf, two stick arms and three buttons, and glue each one on its faint twin. The snowman's body is the writing panel: each button sits beside one sentence, First, Next and Last, so the craft and the writing are one page. It is a how-to writing craft that works as a winter center, a December writing lesson or a bulletin board.

Three writing levels, so every child in the room can do the same craft:

• Level 1: trace and fill in. The sentence starters are printed to trace, with a blank for the missing word and a word bank.
• Level 2: three picture boxes (draw First, Next and Last) with writing lines beside each.
• Level 3: free writing. The order words are printed; the child writes the rest.

Every student page has a name line and one short instruction with a picture, so a paraprofessional can run the center from it too.

WHAT'S INSIDE (16 pages)

• Start Here: a five-day plan, the three levels, ways to make it easier or harder, and prep
• Meet the snowman: the finished craft large with each part named, and a short read-aloud of the four steps
• 6 vocabulary cards to cut (snowball, hat, scarf, carrot, sticks, buttons) and a trace-and-write page for the same 6 words
• Trace the order words: first, next, then, last, each with its step picture
• The pieces: 8 big pieces to color and cut (hat, face with carrot nose, scarf, 2 stick arms, 3 buttons), with the finished snowman beside them
• Three build-and-write pages, one for each level: glue targets the same size as the pieces, then write on the snowman's body
• Put the steps in order: 4 glue boxes (First, Next, Then, Last) and 5 pictures to cut (4 steps plus 1 that is not a step), with a sentence line for each
• Color the snowman and finish two sentences
• A bulletin board header page, "How to Build a Snowman," with the four steps pictured
• A "Who Did What This Week" data page with the answer key
• A family letter to send home
• A credits page (art and font licenses)

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page has 5 or more big pieces, lined up in a grid edge to edge so each cut is one straight line. 19 pieces to cut in all (6 word cards, 8 craft pieces, 5 step pictures).

Who This Is For

Kindergarten to 2nd grade classrooms, self-contained special education classrooms and paraprofessionals who want a winter how-to writing craft with real sequencing and three levels of writing, ready to print.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A printable PDF (print and cut). It is not Google Slides, Docs or PowerPoint, and it has no fillable fields. Print on paper; card stock suits the craft pieces. It is not a claim about any student's age or rate of progress.