Roll a Snowman

Snowmen, candy, and family — roll a snowman has it all. This is an activity that my family has done for family night in January for years. The idea is simple – you have a reference sheet, a dice, and tons of candy and donuts. When you roll a 6, you check the reference sheet and add whatever it tells you to your snowman. First one to build a complete snowman wins!

You do need quite a few materials for this one. The body is made from 2 powdered donuts and a donut hole for the head. Beyond that, you can get creative. This year, we used chocolate chips for eyes (mini ones work best!), gummi worms cut into triangles for noses, M&Ms for buttons, Reese’s thins for the hat brim, and Airheads Xtremes for the scarves and top of the hat. Frosting holds the whole thing together.

In years past, the top of the hat has been made from Rolos or molded Tootsie Rolls. We have also used Twizzlers for the scarf, and cut gumdrops for the noses. The grocery store was picked pretty thin this year, so we had to make some substitutions, but that’s a lovely part of this activity – as long as you like it, whatever you use works!

Here’s how to play!

Materials

printable reference sheet
dice
powdered donuts
donut holes
eyes (mini chocolate chips)
noses (cut gumdrops or gummi worms)
scarf (Twizzlers, Airheads Xtremes)
buttons (M&Ms, chocolate chips, Skittles, Smarties)
hat brim (Reese’s Thins, regular Reese’s cups)
hat top (Airheads Xtremes, Rolos, Tootsie Rolls)
frosting

How to Play

There are two ways to play. In both, players take turns rolling the dice, then check the reference sheet to see what snowman parts they get.

For version 1: Players can collect anything they roll. This means that if they roll buttons right off the bat, I let them choose buttons and put them on their plate while they wait for the body. This works well with my little ones because they have a hard time understanding if they roll and can’t collect.

Version 2 is to make everyone build a complete snowman body (2 body parts and a head) before they can collect accessories. This makes it harder, and there is a chance that some people might never build their snowman.

Either way, if you roll a number you have rolled before, you take no action on your turn. If you get a new number, collect the new pieces and add them to the snowman using frosting. The first person to build a complete snowman is the winner!