“Well, at least it isn’t raining like yesterday!”, says Mali as Mama brings her to kindergarten. She’s in a bad mood and doesn’t want to go 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,” replies Mama, “that’s a fake cough. You heard what real coughing sounds like yesterday at Grandma’s. I have to go to the doctor with her and the waiting room would just be way too boring for you.” “That’s true too!”, Mali has to admit. “But you’ll pick me up as early as possible again, ok?” Mama nods and squeezes Mali’s hand. “As early as possible!”, she promises.
As they turn into the kindergarten yard, Mali sees that the big puddle from yesterday’s rain is covered with a layer of ice. “Look, Mama, there’s ice on the puddle!”, says Mali and carefully places a boot on it. There’s a crack and the thin layer of ice breaks. “Be careful!”, says Mama, “A puddle with ice like that is pretty slippery. Luckily not every sidewalk is iced over, otherwise the walk here would have been quite a slippery affair. But maybe your wish from yesterday will come true.” Mali’s eyes begin to sparkle: “You mean it might still snow today?” Mama laughs: “Yes, you little snow fairy. Yesterday you complained about the cold rain all afternoon and wished for snow with your fairy wand. The weather report said it might still snow today.”
After Mali hangs her jacket on the coat rack, she runs quickly to her group and straight to her best friend Imke: “Imagine, it might snow today. That’s what they said on the weather report.” “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 start making ballet moves. Lilli and Elise, who were just doing a puzzle together, look on in amazement. “Hey, what are you doing?”, asks Elise. “We’re dancing a snowflake dance, then maybe it will snow today,” explains Imke. “Can we join?”, asks Lilli. “Sure! I’ll show you the steps we learned at ballet school, it’s not hard at all,” replies Mali. She spins and moves her arms in elegant sweeps from right to left. It really doesn’t look difficult, and Lilli and Elise quickly realise how much fun the snowflake dance is. The four girls soon have bright red cheeks and feel warm.
“Hey, what’s with all that flailing?”, asks Matze, mimicking the girls and making them laugh. “You can’t dance the snow here into existence, that’s 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,” replies Matze, swinging his arms wildly through the air. It looks so funny that everyone has to laugh. “Children, calm down,” says educator Nina. “I think the girls’ snowflake dance did help after all. Look out the window!” And indeed: outside little snowflakes are drifting down from the sky. “Yes, it’s snowing!”, Mali cheers and sticks her tongue out at Matze. “See what we ballet girls can do.” “Now, now, Mali, that’s not appropriate,” Nina admonishes her and then adds: “After breakfast you may play outside in the snowflakes.”
The children can hardly wait. While they eat, they watch as a white carpet covers the yard and the bushes and trees look as if dusted with powdered sugar. The children rarely get dressed as quickly as they do today and soon everyone is dashing back and forth across the yard and through the garden. Nina stands beside the icy puddle and makes sure no one slips. The snow covering is quickly trampled by many children’s shoes, 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 from them. 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 educator 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 out little corners from the edge, a beautiful snowflake will appear.” The children are thrilled and get started immediately. Snip, snap, beautiful 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 small 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!”, cheers Felicitas and also throws paper scraps into the air. “Stop, wait!”, calls Saskia and shakes her head. Now the paper scraps are all over the craft area and the children. Lilli and Imke have paper scraps in their hair and Elise is trying to shake the scraps out of her sweater hood. Saskia can’t help but grin and hands Matze the broom. “So, you big snow magician, whoever scatters snowflakes must also sweep them up. And Felicitas, you help too.” The two start working laughing and are not finished yet when Mali is picked up by her mother. “So, my darling, are you happy about the snow?”, she asks. “Yes, very. And look at our beautiful paper snow stars,” Mali replies, pointing to the window. “I want to go home quickly and keep crafting there. Lots of snow stars for my bedroom window.” Mali pulls her mother to the coat rack and continues: “I also have to tell you about our snowflake dance. And I definitely want to go to our garden and make a snow angel.” Mama laughs: “Well then, off you go, you little snow fairy!”
Anyone who feels like it can reenact the story with the Little Friends dolls or draw Mali in the snow.
For that there’s the
