Flannel Friday: Snowflake Songs

Sharing a counting flannel for the snowy season today! I love how versatile these fun little snowflakes are. We can use them to count up, count down, compare groups, etc.

Saw a Snowflake is such a versatile counting song. You can use it to count up OR down! Since learning to count up (addition) comes before learning to count down (subtraction), we most frequently start with one snowflake, then add more to the board.

Depending on the age of my group, I might add snowflakes one by one, or multiple snowflakes each time. This song is a great way to practice subitizing (the ability to quickly perceive and name the number of a group of objects) or addition with older kids. “We had one snowflake, then two more flew in. Now how many snowflakes do we have?”

Saw a Snowflake

Tune: Clementine

Saw a snowflake, saw a snowflake,
Saw a snowflake in the sky!
Then the wind blew and some more flew.
Now how many do you spy?

CREDIT: ORIGINGAL

After all the snowflakes have flown in (be there 3 or 5 or 10 or 12 of them), there’s even MORE opportunity for early math talk! We can group the snowflakes by color and compare groups.

• Which color snowflake do we have the most of?
• Which do we have the least of?
• How can you tell?

If have the right age group of kids, I use this same rhyme, but start with multiple snowflakes on the board. Then the wind blows snowflakes away.

“We had ten snowflakes… then the wind blew away two… how many snowflakes do we have left?”

Here’s another simple subtraction rhyme:

Five little snowflakes dancing here and there.
Then one snowflake blows away in the air!
…four, three, two, one…
Zero little snowflakes, not one to be found,
Because all those little snowflakes fell to the ground!

CREDIT: ORIGINAL

I have enough snowflakes to hand out to a group of 30, so sometimes we use them to dance, too!

Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Snowflakes, snowflakes, in the air,
Dancing here and dancing there.
Snowflakes spinning round and round!
Now they’re falling to the ground.
Snowflakes, snowflakes, in the air,
Dancing here and dancing there.

CREDIT: ORIGINAL

This winter I hope to give these guys an early math makeover and add more snowflakes of different sizes/styles, so that we have even more points of comparison.

What’s on your flannelboard this snowy season?

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