A 2nd grader holds up a finished snow globe and says, "Inside my globe it is always snowing, and the little house has a fire, and the person who lives there never has to go to school." It is a good sentence. It is also the whole point of the craft. The globe is a world, and a world is something to write about. A child who builds a world will want to tell you about it, and the telling is the writing lesson.
That is why a craft with writing built into it works better than a craft alone. A craft alone is a decoration. A craft with writing is a story, and a story is something a teacher can teach with. The globe gives the child something to imagine — a house in the snow, a tree with lights, a king on a journey — and the writing gives the imagination a shape. The child builds the world first, and then writes about the world they built. The order matters: the building is the thinking, and the writing is the telling.
What Is Inside the Globe
The Build a Snow Globe Craft has 45 pages, and it is worth knowing the shape of them before the first lesson. There are two teacher pages and four student pages up front. Then 22 craft pages in three sets: Winter, Christmas and Three Kings Day, or Día de Reyes. Then 13 writing and coloring pages. Then four answer-key pages.
The craft pages come in three cutting levels. No-cut scenes work for the youngest hands: the scene is already whole, and the child colors it and puts it in the globe. Easy-cut pieces come in boxes at about one and two-thirds inches, for children who are still learning scissors. Detailed pieces at about one and a quarter to one and a half inches work for older children who can cut carefully. The globe itself is six and a half inches across, and the set also includes a photo globe, a paper-plate version and a back page for hanging.
The writing pages carry three writing levels: K–1, 2–3 and 4–6. There are two writing prompts with brainstorming, two coloring pages and two word searches. The pages come in color and black-and-white versions, so the craft works whether the classroom printer is color or not, and four answer-key pages cover the word searches.
Three Sets, Three Worlds
The three sets are the reason this craft works for a whole school, and they are worth choosing between on purpose. The Winter set is the most open: snow, trees, houses, animals, and any story a child wants to tell about winter. It fits any classroom in December or January, and it fits children who do not celebrate Christmas as well as children who do. Use the Winter set when the class is mixed, or when the globe is a January activity rather than a December one.
The Christmas set is the most familiar: trees with lights, gifts, snowmen, and the scenes children already know from their own homes. It fits a December classroom, and it fits the children who are already thinking about Christmas. Use the Christmas set when the class is building a holiday display, or when the writing prompt asks about a Christmas morning.
The Three Kings Day set is the one most teachers have not used before, and it is the one worth learning about. Three Kings Day, or Día de Reyes, is celebrated on January 6, and the set carries the story of the three kings on their journey. It fits a January classroom, and it fits the children in the class who celebrate it at home. Use the Three Kings Day set in the first week back, when the class is learning about how different families mark the new year, and let the children who know the tradition teach the class about it. A child who sees their own holiday in the classroom will write better about it than a child who does not.
Let each child choose their set, or assign sets by table. A class with three different globes on the wall is a more interesting display than a class with thirty identical ones, and the writing will be more interesting too, because the children are writing about different worlds.
Cutting Levels That Fit Every Hand
The three cutting levels are what make this craft work from PreK to 6th grade, and they only work if the teacher assigns them on purpose. The no-cut scenes are for the youngest hands and for children who struggle with scissors: the scene is already whole, and the child colors it and puts it in the globe. The easy-cut pieces in boxes are for children who are learning to cut: the boxes guide the scissors, and the pieces come out clean. The detailed pieces are for older children who can cut carefully: small pieces, careful curves, and a globe that rewards patience.
Sort the children by their hands, not by their age. A 1st grader with steady hands can do the detailed pieces. A 4th grader who struggles with fine motor control needs the easy-cut pieces, and there is nothing wrong with that. The cutting level is about the hands, and the hands are what they are. Keep the levels invisible: the pieces are all in the same tray, and the child takes the set that fits.
Teach the cutting before the building. Show the class how to hold the scissors, how to turn the paper instead of the hand, and how to cut slowly around a curve. Five minutes of showing is worth twenty minutes of fixing. A child who cuts carefully will build a globe that looks the way they imagined it. A child who rushes will have a globe with torn edges, and the torn edges will be all they see.
For a child who cannot cut at all, the no-cut scene is the answer, and the photo globe is another. The photo globe lets a child put a photo inside the globe instead of a cut scene, and the writing is the same: life inside the globe, told by the child who built it. The craft is not the cutting. The craft is the world, and the world can be built in more than one way.
The Writing: Life Inside the Globe
The writing is the reason this craft is more than a decoration, and it deserves the same care as the building. The writing pages come in three levels: K–1, 2–3 and 4–6. The same prompt fits all three levels, and the level is what changes: a kindergartner draws and dictates, a 2nd grader writes a few sentences, a 6th grader writes paragraphs.
Teach the writing after the building, not before. A child who has built the globe has something to write about. A child who has not built it yet is writing about a globe they have not seen. Let the class build first, hold up the finished globes, and then ask the question: "What is it like to live inside your globe?" The answers will come fast, because the children have just made the place they are describing.
The writing levels work like this. At Level 1, the child draws a picture of life inside the globe and writes or dictates one or two sentences. "Inside my globe it snows every day." At Level 2, the child writes a few sentences: what the world looks like, who lives there, what a day is like. At Level 3, the child writes paragraphs: a description of the world, a day in the life of someone who lives there, and a problem that person has to solve. The problem is the interesting part. A world without a problem is a picture. A world with a problem is a story.
Read the writing out loud, or let children read their own. A child who hears their own words read back to them will hear what works and what does not, and the hearing is the revision. Do not correct the writing on the globe pages. Write one short comment — a question is better than a correction — and hand it back. "What happens when the snow stops?" is a better comment than a red circle around a spelling error, and it will get a better second draft.
Two Prompts and a Brainstorm
The two writing prompts come with brainstorming, and the brainstorming is the part worth teaching. A prompt without a brainstorm is a child staring at a blank page. A prompt with a brainstorm is a child with a list of ideas, and a list of ideas is a start.
Teach the brainstorm as a web. Put the prompt in the middle of the page — "Life inside my snow globe" — and let the children call out words and ideas while you write them around it. Snow. A house. A fire. A dog. A king. A gift. Then ask for sentences: "The house has a fire." "The dog sleeps by the fire." "The king is on his way." The web becomes the plan, and the plan becomes the writing.
The two prompts are different, and they should be used differently. One prompt asks the child to describe the world inside the globe. The other asks the child to imagine a day in that world. Use the description prompt first, because describing is easier than imagining a day. Use the day prompt second, because a child who has described the world can now live in it for a day.
For the youngest children, the brainstorm can be spoken and drawn instead of written. For the oldest children, the brainstorm can be a list of ten words, and the challenge is to use all ten in the writing. The challenge is the stretch, not a harder prompt.
Hanging the Display
The finished globes go on a wall or a board, and the back page for hanging is what makes it possible. Each globe has a back page, and the back page has a place to hang it from. Put the globes up with the writing beside them, so a visitor can read the world and the words together. A globe without its writing is a decoration. A globe with its writing is a story on the wall.
The paper-plate version is the one to use when the class is large and the time is short. A paper plate is a globe already, and the child colors the scene, writes about it, and the plate goes on the wall. It is faster than the full craft, and it works for a class that needs the display up by Friday.
The photo globe is the one to use when the class has a camera. A photo of the child, or of the child's family, inside the globe turns the craft into a keepsake, and the writing becomes a letter about the people in the picture. Send the photo globes home at the end of the unit. A parent who gets a globe with their child's photo and writing in it will keep it, and the keeping is the point.
Differentiation Across Six Grades
PreK through 6th grade is a wide range, and the craft only works across it if the teacher assigns the levels on purpose. The cutting levels and the writing levels are separate decisions, and a child can be at one level for cutting and another for writing. A 1st grader with steady hands and strong writing can do the detailed pieces and the Level 2 writing. A 5th grader who struggles with fine motor control can do the easy-cut pieces and the Level 3 writing. The levels are about the child, not the grade.
For the youngest children, the no-cut scene and the Level 1 writing are the right combination: color the scene, put it in the globe, draw a picture of life inside, and dictate or write one sentence. That is a complete piece of work for a PreK child, and it should be treated as one.
For the middle children, the easy-cut pieces and the Level 2 writing are the right combination: cut the pieces, build the globe, and write a few sentences about a day inside it. For the oldest children, the detailed pieces and the Level 3 writing are the right combination: cut carefully, build a globe with small pieces, and write paragraphs about the world and its problems.
For English learners, the globe is a gift. The world is concrete — snow, a house, a tree — and the vocabulary is visible. Preview the hard words before the writing, with the globe in front of the child, and let the child point to the thing when they meet the word. A child who knows the word "lantern" before writing will use it in the writing. A child who meets it for the first time in the middle of a sentence will skip it.
Centers, Early Finishers and Sub Days
The Build a Snow Globe Craft fits a center because it is self-contained: the craft pages, the scissors, the glue, and a child who can build it alone. Set up a center with one set at a time, a cup of crayons, and a finished globe on the table. The finished globe matters more than the instructions. A child who can see what the globe should look like will build it right without being told twice. Rotate the set weekly, and keep the finished globes in a basket at the center until they go on the wall.
The word searches make a good quiet center for children who need calm work. The two word searches come with an answer key, so children can check themselves, and the checking is a habit worth teaching. The coloring pages work the same way: a calm page for a loud day, and a page that needs no explanation.
Early finishers are the easiest use of all. Keep a tray of the coloring pages and word searches near the finish line, and let children who finish their work early take a page. The rule stays the same — finish your work first, then take a page — and the early finisher gets a calm activity instead of a free draw.
For a substitute day, the craft is one of the safest choices in the cupboard. The routine is simple enough for a substitute to run: hand out the craft pages, say "cut, build, then write about life inside your globe," and walk the room. Leave the answer keys with the sub, and leave a note about which cutting level goes to which group. The pages come in color and black-and-white versions, so the sub day works on any printer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What grades is the snow globe craft for?
It is written for PreK through 6th grade. The craft comes in three cutting levels and the writing in three levels (K–1, 2–3, 4–6), so the same globe fits a whole mixed-age class. A teacher assigns the cutting level by the child's hands and the writing level by the child's writing.
How many pages are included, and what is on them?
The set has 45 pages: 22 craft pages in 3 sets (Winter, Christmas and Three Kings Day / Día de Reyes), 13 writing and coloring pages and 4 answer-key pages, plus 2 teacher pages and 4 student pages. The craft also includes a photo globe, a paper-plate version and a back page for hanging.
How big is the globe, and what cutting levels are there?
The globe is 6 1/2 inches across. The craft pieces come in three levels: no-cut scenes, easy-cut pieces in boxes (about 1 2/3 inches) and detailed pieces (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches).
What are the three globe sets?
The three sets are Winter, Christmas and Three Kings Day (Día de Reyes). The Winter set fits any classroom in December or January. The Christmas set fits a December holiday display. The Three Kings Day set fits the first week back in January and the children who celebrate it at home.
Is there an answer key, and do the pages come in color?
Yes. Four answer-key pages are included for the word searches, and the pages come in color and black-and-white versions, so the craft works whether the classroom printer is color or not.
How does the writing work?
The writing pages come in three levels (K–1, 2–3, 4–6), with two writing prompts and brainstorming. Children write about what it would be like to live inside the globe they built. A kindergartner draws and dictates, a 2nd grader writes a few sentences, and a 6th grader writes paragraphs about the world and its problems.
Can the craft be used for a bulletin-board display?
Yes. The back page for hanging lets each globe go on a wall or a board, and the writing goes beside it. The paper-plate version works when the class is large and the time is short, and the photo globe works when the class has a camera.
