A snowman made of cotton balls is a toddler classic for a reason; after all every toddler seems to love soft, puffy cotton balls, and they really do make adorable snowmen!

The first version Veronika and I made today involved more parental work than the second. I traced 3 sizes of circle cookie cutters on contact paper, then cut out. Tape down to a piece of construction paper with double-sided tape so that the sticky part of the contact paper faces up. Now have your toddler cover with cotton balls!

The three circles will immediately resemble the head, torso, and bottom of a snowman. This was a great opportunity to point out the relative sizes of the circles.

I then cut a few additional details from construction paper which Veronika could help glue on, including an orange carrot nose, a red scarf, and black circles for buttons and eyes. Make sure to have your toddler help squeeze out the glue, which is great for those little finger muscles!

The second version we made allowed Veronika to be more in charge. This time, we simply smeared a glue stick onto construction paper in circular motions, a big circle on the bottom and smaller on top.

After sticking on cotton balls for the body, I then gave Veronika pom poms to add for decorations. This was a great way to give her agency over how the snowman turned out.

If your child wants to add a background, use a white crayon for a snowy scene. For all that, Veronika’s favorite part of the whole activity was dumping cotton balls from one container to another, which was just fine.

As I said, toddlers love those fluffy little cotton balls!