"Well, at least it's not raining like yesterday!", says Mali as Mum takes her to kindergarten. She's in a bad mood and doesn't feel like it at all. "Why can't I just stay with you? Listen, I have a really bad cough," Mali whines and coughs three times. "Oh, Mali," Mum replies, "that's just pretend coughing. You heard what a real cough sounds like at Grandma's yesterday. I have to take her to the doctor and the waiting room would be far too boring for you." "That's true too!", Mali has to admit. "But you'll pick me up as early as possible again, okay?" Mum nods and squeezes Mali's hand. "As early as possible!", she promises.
When they turn into the kindergarten yard, Mali sees that the big puddle from yesterday's rain is covered with a layer of ice. "Look, Mum, there's ice on the puddle!", Mali says and carefully puts a boot on it. There's a crack and the thin sheet of ice breaks. "Be careful!", Mum says, "A puddle with ice is pretty slippery. Luckily not all the pavements are frozen, otherwise the way here would have been quite a slippery journey. But maybe your wish from yesterday will come true." Mali's eyes begin to shine: "You mean it might still snow today?" Mum laughs: "Yes, you little snow fairy. Yesterday you moaned about the cold rain all afternoon and wished for snow with your fairy wand. The weather forecast said it might snow later today."
After Mali has hung her jacket on the cloakroom hook, she runs quickly into her group and straight to her best friend Imke: "Imagine, it might still snow today. That's what they said in the weather forecast." "That would be great!", Imke is delighted. "Come on, let's do a snowflake dance, maybe that will help too," she suggests. Mali and Imke find a free corner in the playroom and begin to make ballet movements. Lilli and Elise, who are doing a puzzle together, look up in surprise. "Hey, what are you doing there?", Elise asks. "We're dancing a snowflake dance, then maybe it will still snow today," Imke explains. "Can we join in?", Lilli asks. "Sure! I'll show you the steps we learned at ballet school, it's not difficult at all," Mali replies. She turns and moves her arms in elegant sweeps from right to left. It really doesn't look hard, and Lilli and Elise quickly realise how much fun the snowflake dance is. The four girls soon have rosy cheeks and feel hot.
"Hey, what kind of flapping is that?", Matze asks, copying the girls and laughing. "You can't dance snow into being, what nonsense!" "Matze, stop! That's not nice!", Imke says and pushes him away. "But I'm also a super-elegant ballet mouse like you girls," Matze replies and swings his arms wildly through the air. It's so funny that everyone has to laugh. "Children, calm down," says teacher Nina. "I think the girls' snowflake dance did help after all. Look out of the window!" And indeed: small snowflakes are drifting down outside. "Yes, it's snowing!", Mali cheers and sticks her tongue out at Matze. "There, you can see what we ballet girls can do." "Now, now, Mali, that's not proper," Nina admonishes her, adding: "After breakfast you may play outside in the snowflakes."
The children can hardly wait. While they eat, they watch a white blanket of snow settle on the yard and see the bushes and trees dusted as if with icing sugar. The children are rarely dressed so quickly as today and soon everyone is dashing about the yard and through the garden. Nina stands next to the icy puddle and makes sure no one slips. The snow blanket is quickly trodden down by many children's boots, but luckily it keeps snowing. Mali and Imke spin around and dance with the snowflakes. Elise, Lilli and Milla roll snowballs and build a small snowman. And Matze? He and Felicitas have a wild snowball fight and chase each other across the yard. Completely frozen through but with shining eyes, the children return to the group after an hour.
In the meantime teacher Saskia has prepared the craft table and explains to the children what she has planned: "Look, if you fold the paper three times and then cut small shapes from the edge, you get a lovely snowflake." The children are enthusiastic and get started at once. Snip, snap — pretty snowflakes appear and in no time the craft table is covered with white paper scraps. As Saskia sticks the finished paper snow stars to the window, Milla pushes all the paper scraps on the table into a little pile. Matze reaches in and throws a handful into the air. "There, look! I may not be able to do a snowflake dance, but I can make it snow in the room!", he says laughing. "Hooray, more snow!", Felicitas cheers and throws paper scraps into the air too. "Hold on, stop!", Saskia calls, shaking her head. Now the paper scraps are all over the craft area and scattered around the children. Lilli and Imke have paper bits in their hair and Elise is trying to shake the scraps out of her hoodie. Saskia can't help smiling and hands Matze the broom. "Right, you big snow wizard, whoever can scatter snowflakes must also sweep them up. And Felicitas, you help too." The two set to work laughing and are not yet finished when Mali is collected by her mum. "Well, my darling, are you happy about the snow?", she asks. "Yes, very. And look at our lovely paper snowflakes," Mali replies, pointing to the window. "I want to hurry home and keep crafting there. Lots of snowflakes for my bedroom window." Mali pulls her mum towards the cloakroom and continues: "Also I have to tell you about our snowflake dance. And I really want to go into our garden and make a snow angel." Mum laughs: "Right, then off you go, you little snow fairy!"
Anyone who feels like it can act out the story with the Little Friends dolls or draw Mali in the snow.
For that there's the
