Marshmallow Snowpeople and Coffee Filter Angels

Anyone who lives here in Minnesota knows that it has been brutally cold.  Even the toughest kids don’t stay outside for long when it’s below zero with an ungodly wind chill.  Now is the time to pull out that bin of  “junk” that you’ve been saving for art projects.  It may keep all of you from going postal in this weather.  I know it’s helped us through some of these cold days when I’m frantically trying to get things done and the kids are literally climbing the walls and each other.

My mother-in-law brought  marshmallow snow people for the kids to make at a holiday party and it was a huge hit!  Just be prepared for the sugar insanity that inevitably follows a project like this! 

You will need big (and or small) marshmallows, Popsicle sticks (to use as frosting knives), oreos, frosting, small pretzel sticks (optional) and edible gel marker pens (also optional).  Remember, you can easily make frosting with powdered sugar and milk (butter and vanilla are a delicious addition.)  Stiffer frosting works better since the frosting is the “glue” for the project.   Canned frosting works just fine too.

Using the oreo as a base, simply have your children add frosting to the oreo.  Then, they can build a snowman, adding one marshmallow at a time, gluing the sections together with frosting.  The pretzels can be stuck in as arms.  It may work well to have your children draw the faces on their snowmen before gluing the heads on.  My mother-in-law said that you can usually find the frosting gel pens at the grocery store!

There are no specific instructions for making coffee filter angels, egg carton tea cups and construction paper snowmen.  Get out the glue, the paper, paper towel rolls, the markers, the pipe cleaners, the buttons, the junk box and let the fun begin.  You can show your child pictures of what my kids made to give them ideas, but I’m sure they’ll come up with some of their own.  We used paper towel rolls wrapped in white paper for the angels’ bodies and coffee filters for the skirt and wings.  May just drew the face on her angel with markers.  They made a tea set with cut-up egg cartons for cups with pipe cleaner handles.Who knew a cut-up egg carton could be so inspirational?

Stay warm!  Stay sane!  Happy Holidays!