It has happened with Sam.  A few years ago it happened to my Madeline too.  I come up with a creative and fun craft or activity for them, and they take that idea and make it so much better.  This preschool winter craft I did with Sam is a prime example.  I will still take some credit, after all, they are my creative little wild people.  And I am a little competitive (apparently even with my own 4 year old)

We set out to create likely the most basic preschool winter craft.  Paper snowflakes!  After all, there is so much learning that can be done with this simple craft – I wrote all about it over at Hands on as we Grow (which will be posted in a few weeks).  I stand by that activity.  It is a good, solid, educational preschool winter craft.  But this twist?  Well, I really don’t think I would have ever come up with it on my own.

I have cut, quite literally, hundreds of paper snowflakes in my day.  But I have never paid much attention to the little shapes that are cut out of the snowflake.  Of course, when you make a paper snowflake, you fold up paper and cut out little shapes along the folds.  When you open it up, a beautiful snowflake is revealed.  And that is what I had always focused on, the beautiful end result (I am an end-resulter).

But my Sam is a noticer.  He notices little details, and always focuses on the process of things.  Noticing every Fall leaf on our farm, and painstakingly collecting them all is how my noticer has spent his Autumn.

So it should have come as no surprise that for this winter craft, my Sam focused on those little, tiny cut out shapes.  Examining each one, comparing them, marveling at the ones that matched, and amazed by how different others were.  Oh my noticer certainly helps me see this world in a new way.

I was looking at one of the big beautiful snowflakes (as an end-resulter, it is in my very nature to do so) when Sam suggested we try to put all the little piece back in.  Like a puzzle, he said.

Yes, like a puzzle – paper snowflake puzzles!  (I thought to myself perhaps too excitedly)

He now had me completely on board, he had won me over once again to the ‘noticing’ side.

We took our paper snowflake and glued it down to some construction paper.

I then rolled up some little pieces of tape (painters tape, because it is how we roll) and stuck them to the back of each of the little cut out shapes.

Finally, Sam worked diligently to put each and every little shape back into the paper snowflake.  Turing our snowflake back into a white square of paper (truthfully, as an end-resulter this was a bit tough to do, but my noticer was so very happy).

This was such a fun preschool winter craft and activity.  So full of learning – discerning between similar shapes, fine motor skill development, shape recognition and terminology, to name just a few of the wonderful things we were practicing.

And best of all, it was all Sam’s idea.  (Though kinda my idea, since I did suggest the paper snowflakes, coined the term ‘paper snowflake puzzles’, and I was the one who has been raising him and encouraging his creativity and ‘noticing’ day in and day out.  SO about 50 -50, yes?)

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