Snowflakes on a straw

Children carry paper snowflakes by sucking them onto a straw, then make a cotton-wool blizzard – a breathing game for the first day of winter.

Steps

1. The teacher cuts small snowflakes (about 3 cm) from tissue or thin paper, a few per child.
2. Children pick up a snowflake by sucking through a straw, carry it to a drawn cloud and let it go there.
3. Whoever moves all their snowflakes arranges them into a pattern on the cloud.
4. Blizzard: cotton wool balls go in the middle of the table and children blow them onto a 'snowdrift' drawn on the edge of the paper.
5. At the end a quiet snowfall: a long, quiet 'ffff' breath out without blowing the cotton wool – just listening.

Tip: Sucking is harder than blowing. Give younger children thicker straws and bigger snowflakes made of thin tissue paper.

Materials needed

• Paper straws (1 per child)
• White tissue paper (2 sheets per group)
• Cotton wool balls (1 pack)