Do you want to build a snowman? It’s winter time so what is more fun than making a Snowman with your class? Do you know how to make a snowman? This is a a fun Build a Snowman EFL ESL lesson plan for children of about 3-6 years old. I think older children would probably enjoy it too though if you adapted it slightly. It will last about one hour and you’ll learn lots of vocabulary about snowmen and their body parts and clothes. You’ll also make and decorate your own snowman collage for the kids to take home. So wrap up warm, it’s time to go out in the snow for a Build a Snowman EFL ESL Lesson plan.
For this Snowman EFL ESL lesson plan, you will need:
- Props – a scarf, a hat, a couple of sticks or branches and some stones for a face and buttons
- Snowman parts flashcards – something like this would be perfect or make your own
- Scrap paper for snowman building game
- Different colored and white paper and card
- Markers for coloring
- Scissors and glue
Songs and videos:
- Little Snowflake by Super Simple Songs
- Let’s Make a Snowman by Fun Kids English
Introduce your Snowman
Start the class with your usual Hello routine or use one of my favorite hello songs if you prefer. Then it’s time to start introducing a snowman using your props. I would do this with a mystery bag. Sing the song and let the kids pull out the clothes and props one at a time. If they know its name, let them say it and then repeat it together. When you’ve done this, you can draw a snowman on the board and draw on the different objects as you repeat them. Or make one of the kids into a Snowman and dress them together.
Sing a snowy song and learn the parts of the body
Watch the Little Snowflake video and then sing the song together. You need to add some more parts of the body for your snowman: head, nose, eyes, mouth, arms. Sing the song without the music and adapt it to this. Don’t forget to use lots of TPR and clearly indicate each body part. Get the kids to be snowman with the snow falling on them. Now we’ve learnt the vocabulary and we’re ready to build our snowman.
Do you want to build a snowman?
Before letting the kids build their own snowmen, we’re going to build one together. Give out the snowman flashcards to some of the kids and ask the class, “What do we need to build a snowman?” Point to one of the children with a card and prompt him or her to say, “We need a hat” or “We need a nose”. When they say this, they can give you their card and you can stick it on the board and gradually build your snowman. You could also do this without flashcards and just draw each item on the board until you have a complete snowman.
Sing a snowman building song
When you’ve completed your snowman, sing the Let’s make a snowman song together. It would be fun to give each child a piece of scrap paper and a marker and let them draw each part of the snowman as you get to it in the song. Then put them in pairs and let them practice asking each other, “What do we need?”, “We need two stones for buttons” and drawing the snowman again together.
Make a snowman collage
Give the children the paper, scissors and glue and let them cut out their own snowman parts and clothes. Once they’ve cut them all out, they can build and glue their snowman onto some colored paper so it really stands out. Then they can draw a snowy landscape around the snowman. If you’ve got glitter or stickers, this would be really pretty. While they’re doing this, go around the class and check that the kids all remember the vocabulary by asking them the what do we need question again.
Conclusion
If you’ve still got some time left, sing the snowman songs again and then finish off with your goodbye routine or use one of my favorite goodbye songs. Tidy up together and send the kids home with their snowmaen pictures. Maybe they’ll go and build a real snowman after school.
If you’ve enjoyed this Snowman EFL ESL lesson plan, you can find more ideas for winter activities here and for Christmas here. You can also find more lesson plans for kids of all ages in the lesson plan section of GoogooEnglish. To keep up to date with all our new posts, sign up for email updates below or follow our Facebook page.