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Snowman Animation Poem

© Stacy Peters-Walters

Second-graders love PowerPoint or a any presentation software. During the winter months, I like to have my students create Snowman PowerPoint poems. Before we go to the computer room, I pass out a two papers that looks like the following:

S
N
O
W
M
A
N

On the first paper, we brainstorm as many descriptive words about a snowman as possible that begin with each letter. The students write each word after the letter so that we get long lists. On the second sheet of paper, I ask them to either use one of the words that we’ve brainstormed or to think of another one. They can have one word per letter.

After we have written our poems, we go into the computer lab and open up PowerPoint. PowerPoint isn’t the only software that you can use, but I will be using it for this example. You can also use HyperStudio, KidPix, Presentations or Claris Works.

On the first screen, the students click on DESIGN TEMPLATE and then OK. This gives them a list of designs that they can look at and choose from. I give the students three or four minutes to look through them and choose one. (I always have to give a time constraint, otherwise some would spend the entire lab time deciding.)

In the second screen, I have them choose the blank slide and then click OK. I then have the students click on the SLIDE VIEW, which is located as an icon of a single slide in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. This will give them more room to view their work.

The students then click on the INSERT WORD ART button. This button is located on the DRAWING toolbar. It is a large blue A. If the drawing toolbar is not present, the students can click on VIEW, TOOLBARS and DRAWING. I then give the students one minute to choose a word art format. In the next screen they can choose their font. Once again I give them a time limit. Then they type in a capital S and click OK. I then give them a few minutes to enlarge or minimize their S’s and move them to the top of the slide. They can use their mouse for this. I then have them repeat this entire procedure for the letters N, O, W, M, A, N.

Once all of the letters for SNOWMAN are created and arranged vertically on the slide, the students choose the TEXT TOOL on the DRAWING toolbar. This is the white piece of paper with a small black A on it. They click after the S and write their S word from their paper. Each student should leave off that first S as the WORD ART letter is there. The students need to repeat this step for each letter in SNOWMAN.

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