White Chocolate Covered Frozen Banana Snowmen

We've had a number of snowman themed books arrive in at the library, just in time for all of our snow to melt.

After a rainy, drippy, gray kind of day, G helped me put together a frozen snack tonight, to put us back into a snowman kind of mood.

We weren't really sure what we were doing, but we had a general idea of where we wanted to end up - with frozen, chocolate covered bananas, shaped like snowmen. First we gathered our supplies.

• 2 bananas (ours were pretty yellow, but generally closer to the green end is better for frozen bananas).
  
• 6 wooden skewers - we broke the pointy parts off to make them safer for little mouths.
  
• 1 bag of white chocolate chips
  
• a handful of mini chocolate chips, and
  
• 6 orange, mini M&M's
  

We also prepared a cookie sheet, covered with tinfoil, and we were ready to start. We sliced the bananas, and placed three slices onto each skewer, as shown.

We melted the chocolate chips, in a wide, shallow bowl, in the microwave, running it for 60 seconds, stirring at 30 second intervals, until it was smooth, and completely melted.

We dipped the banana skewers into the chocolate. This is the part where we really didn't know what we were doing, so it was a little tricky, trying to cover the bananas, while keeping them on the skewer. We finally, ended up spooning the chocolate over them.

Then, we placed them on the tinfoil covered cookie sheet, and quickly decorated them with the mini M&M's, and chocolate chips, before sticking them into the freezer, for a half an hour or so, to harden.

I'm sure there is a way to keep the chocolate from pooling around the bananas, giving the snowmen a messy, kind of melty, look - but for our story tonight...

...it didn't matter. Sneezy the Snowman, by Maureen Wright, is a story about a snowman trying to find the right temperature, and melting himself, several times along the way. The children rebuild him each time, and offer him a hat, a scarf, and a coat, to help him feel cozy, but not too warm. In the end, it's a combination of the children's help, and a frozen treat, that make him feel just right.

It's sort of a strange story, but with a repetitive refrain, good for emerging readers to join in. And, it fit with our snack, and our mood, of not being sure if we're too cold, or too hot, or too springy, or too wintry - just right, as well.

It's great to be a homeschooler.