How to Build a Snowman in South Florida

6th grade Art students helped build a large papier-mache snowman for our Winter Show in December. He ended up being about 4 feet tall. This was an after school project, though students were building their own smaller papier-mache creations in class.

Armature made from PVC pipe, black plastic bags stuffed with newspaper, and duct tape to hold it all together.  Two plumbing flanges are attached to the particle board base (not yet attached in this photo). The snowman and the pole (below) are both built around PVC for stability. Each PVC pipe slides over a metal pipe that's screwed into the flange.

We just used water and white glue (about half and half) for the paste. Since I don't have an Art room this year, we had to build him in the hallway. It gave us plenty of room to work, but the clean-up each day was not fun.

Papier-mached snowman with stick arms and the North Pole (haha). The pole is a cardboard mailing tube. I brought a snowflake tree topper that I've had for years, and we papier-mached it to the top of the pole. I cut the PVC down after we were finished so the snowman and the North Pole sat flush on the base. We left a bit of pipe while we were working for height.

Painted with white semi-gloss latex paint. We added a layer of Triple Thick mixed with glitter, as well, to make him sparkly. :)

Here he is finished, with Model Magic eyes and mouth, some festive winter accessories, and a few papier-mache critters made by 6th grade students. A student made the North Pole sign, as well.

Winter (or what passes for it in Florida) Drawings

Winter is merely a brief two or three days here in sunny South Florida (OK, maybe sometimes four), but that doesn't stop us from drawing snow! The two videos below are from our school's winter show in December. Since we artists don't generally get up and dance with our art work, I put together a video presentation so my young artists could be part of the show. I love how they came together, and the kids were so proud to be included.

K, 1st, and 2nd Snow Globes

K-2 students created snow globe drawings using crayon resist on coffee filters (easy circles for the globes). Snowmen, Santa, and Rudolf were very popular subjects. The music is "Walking in the Air" from The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs. (Such a beautiful song!)

Students drew a horizon line and then created their own winter scene in crayon. The only thing they could not do was color in the sky with crayon. The sky was colored in blue marker, then sprayed with water for a watercolor-like effect. Students then cut a trapezoid "base" from a construction paper color of their choice and glued the base and their snow globe drawing to a piece of black construction paper.

3rd, 4th, and 5th Pastel Drawings: Snowmen at Night

3rd-5th graders learned about creating 3-dimensional space in a drawing using chalk pastels. Working on black paper, students were inspired by Mark Buehner's fun and vibrant work and created their own illustrations for Snowment at Night, written by Caralyn Buehner. Our video is narrated by a 5th grade student.

6th Grade Papier Mache and Set Design

6th grade students made papier mache snowflakes and critters for our winter wonderland. We also spent one class in the dining hall (on location) designing the set for the Winter Show. Students had a chance to submit ideas for the final design, and we incorporated ideas from several students for the final set, which also included a large Christmas tree and navy blue wall drapings with stars (seen below), as well as a very large number of white lights. 6th graders also helped with actual set-up the day before the show. Below is the snowman we made, along with a few of the students' animals. You can see the step-by-step process of building the snowman here.