Christmas "gift" Idea Each year......we manage to come up with an idea for a gift to make our "parents" for Christmas. Sometimes this can be a challenging task. This is what I do for our 3's each year....I usually plan something different for our Pre-K's to make since they usually all did this the year before. Anyway here goes... I purchase the Wooden "craft" hoops from Walmart or a craft store (7 or 8 inch hoops)......muslin.....and red craft ribbon... I cut the muslin into squares big enough so they will fit in the hoop easily. I dip the child's hand in green paint and place it on the muslin square to make a handprint. After the paint is dry...I put it in the hoop.(you can stain the hoop first if you are ambitious)....then with a red paint pen....I write at the top........"Children are a gift of the Lord"...at the bottom I write the child's name and the year......example: ......."Doug" 1998.... then I hot glue a little red bow at the top of the hoop. We let the children wrap the gift..providing them with paper and tape... We make a christmas card and attach this poem to the inside: SOMETIMES YOU GET DISCOURAGED BECAUSE I AM SO SMALL.. AND ALWAYS LEAVE MY FINGERPRINTS ON FURNITURE AND WALLS BUT EVERY DAY I'M GROWING UP AND SOON I'LL BE SO TALL THAT ALL THOSE LITTLE HANDPRINTS WILL BE HARD TO RECALL SO HERE'S A SPECIAL HANDPRINT JUST SO THAT YOU CAN SAY THIS IS HOW MY FINGERS LOOKED WHEN I PLACED THEM HERE TODAY. ************************************************************************* Here is a verse that I often use for my 3-4's. In fact, we have done it a few times at our Christmas Program and the kids always enjoy it. "Let's decorate the Christmas tree We'll make it bright and gay! But I will surely need your help To make it look that way. Place RED balls everywhere Then some of pretty BLUE YELLOW adds bright color ORANGE and PURPLE do too Add some PINK And then some GREEN Now, isn't that the prettiest tree you've ever seen?" ************************************************************************* I have a little "stick" tree (wooden, painted green) that I use for this, but a regular small Christmas tree of any kind would do. So would a flannel board or magnet board. Every year I kept cutting out colored circles to use on the tree (construction paper). Just this morning, as I prepared to cut some more out, I spied a big bag of orange juice lids (they are so handy! I ask my parents to save them!) and thought: "Duh--why don't I make permanent ornaments from the paper and the lids? Then I don't have to make them every year." Not that they take so much time to do--but it would be much handier to just reach in my C-mas box and find them.Plus, then I would have an unbreakable set for the kids to play with. So--at 5:30 a.m. I made a set of these colored ornaments and some extras. When I get to school I will hot glue a ribbon to each. Now we can practice it for our program and also set it out for the children to play with. ************************************************************************* A fun game we played with my Pre-K class is Christmas Tree bingo. I made a sheet for each student that featured an outline of a Christmas tree. On the tree were circles with the numbers 1-12 printed on them. Easy to do--we used the computer clip art for the tree, circles and numbers. Then I copied a sheet for each child. I found pretty sticker circles at the Teacher's shop and I gave each child a strip of 12. As I called off the numbers they located the number on their paper and placed a sticker on it. When we were finished the tree was decorated and we had a fun lesson in number recognition. Some of my 3's could do this too.They took this sheet home. I also ran this on green copy paper and had it laminated so I could have a permanent set to keep at school too. ************************************************************************* Candy Cane Mice: Here is an oldie but goodie. I just cut these out last night. To make a cute candy cane mouse you need red felt, green felt, wiggle eyes and a pompom nose. You can make it any size you like--from the regular candy cane to the mini-size. I used the mini size because I have 40 students this year and the big ones get expensive...sigh. Also, it isn't as much candy for them to eat. Anyway, the mouse's body is shaped like a raindrop. The "point" on the top is the mouse's nose. The ears are shaped like ovals.(Cut one oval--you pull it thru 2 cuts, described later, and it makes both ears) . I cut the bodies from red and the ears from green felt, but you could use any color you like. Make a small horizontal cut near the back--this is the mouse's tail and where the candy cane will go. The straight end of the candy cane goes thru this cut and the curved part sticks out the back for the tail. Also make two vertical cuts somewhat near the mouse's nose. The ears go thru this. Put the oval thru the first cut and pull it out the second.The cuts are side by side so one ear sticks out one cut and the other sticks out the other cut. Glue on eyes and pom-pom nose and you're done. You've probably seen them before, but if you're like me, sometimes you don't do something for a few years and then when rediscovered, it seems new! I hadn't done these for a while and was pleased to find the pattern in my box. I cut 6 mice from each 20-cent piece of red felt--and MANY ears. Inexpensive and cute. ************************************************************************** Christmas Quickie--trees We made beautiful Christma Trees, ---and the compliments have not stopped coming. E-Z...Quick and inexpensive!!!! ( three key words....and they are all true--it is not too late for these) I used snow paper cups.... poured some green paint in some glue...added a little water--stirred dip commercial (brown ) paper towel in the glue...moisten all over and wrap on the snowcone cup Sprinkle with glitter...ohhhh la la.... BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Takes a couple of days to dry, and I set them on an old tray to dry...but they are really neat...dry almost like plastic. ************************************************************************** Christmas bulletin board idea Have all your children decorate a green triangular Christmas tree (I pre-cut the trees out of a piece of 9x11 green construction paper; don't forget the stem!) with glitter, sequins, etc. When all the individual trees are dry, make a huge tree by hanging each tree in the figuration that follows. Each X represents an individual students tree. X XX XXX XXXX XXXXX Get the idea? When all your trees are up, add a star up on top and a piece of brown paper at the bottom for the trunk. ************************************************************************* BULLETIN BOARD DECORATION To decorate a Christmas bulletin board, I used the Christmas bulb shapes cut out of colored paper (I bought several sheets of colored paper from a copy shop because the colors were brighter) To represent the electrical cord, I used green curling ribbon and hung it a bit loose and curled in places. I "strung" the bulbs all around the outside of the board. ************************************************************************* The Gingerbread Man Kick off the season with The Gingerbread Man. For a Bulletin Board or art idea cut 2 gingerbread boys from brown paper grocery sacks. Staple around all but one side. Have the children stuff toilet tissue to make the form puffy. Staple remaining side. Glue on wrapping paper bow ties, rick-rack for trims and bows for the girls. Add colored buttons and have your children customize them to their heart's content. Culminate with a gingerbread cooking activity and let the kids decorate their own cookies. They'll run, run, run to eat up this yummy treat! ************************************************************************* Fireplace Make a "fireplace" on your bulletin board. Buy some cheap Christmas stockings or use long socks and "hang" them on the fireplace. Before the children arrive at school, place different items in the stockings such as a wad of cotton, a toy car, a block, a balloon filled with water, etc. When the children come to circle time, ask each child to come up to the fireplace and try to guess what it inside the stockings by feeling them. Record the children's responses. ************************************************************************* Christmas Cutout... Display Christmas catalogs allow the children to cut out pictures of what they'd like for Christmas. Glue them onto construction paper for the parents to view. ************************************************************************** O Christmas Tree Children are sure to have a ball practicing fine -motor skills as they decorate a Christmas tree in your housekeeping area. Place a small , artificial Christmas tree in the center.Have a container of small ornaments for hanging. ************************************************************************* Post Office Turn the dramatic play area into a post office. Since so many cards and packages are sent during the month of December this would be a great way for the kids to role play. Don't forget to include stamps, envelopes, markers, pens, stamps and stamp pads, phone book, scale for weighing packages, phones, tape. Turn the block area into a wrapping station where they can package boxes to be mailed. Use a large box-painted and a hole cut into it for a mail box. Make sure to include a canvas tote for a mail bag. ************************************************************************* Santa's Workshop... In the housecorner add wooden toys, dolls, boxes, giftwrap, blocks of wood, sandpaper, child sized tool set, water in a bucket with paint brush, elf costumes, children's wish lists etc. Have the children pretend to be Santa's elf's sanding, painting, and wrapping children's Christmas gifts. ************************************************************************* Playdough Age: 1 plus Give the children red and green playdough to use as well as Christmas shaped cutters and other toys ************************************************************************* Sewing Cards Age: 2 plus Punch holes around old Christmas cards and let the children sew round them with tinsel. ************************************************************************* Gift Wrapping Block area Put wrapping paper into the blocks area with tape, bows, ribbons etc. The children can wrap up small and large blocks like presents. ************************************************************************* Block Area... Provide cardboard bricks and a few small logs encourage children to construction a fireplace for Santa to visit. ************************************************************************* Santa Claus Scramble Write the letters S-A-N-T-A C-L-A-U-S on individual index cards. Do this four times, making four sets, or forty cards. Place the cards in a brown paper bag. To play - have the players divide into two teams on opposite sides of the room. Pass the bag that contains the letters. The teams alternate in picking a letter. The first team to combine their letters to spell SANTA CLAUS wins! ************************************************************************* Candy Relay Divide the kids into teams and have them form lines. Give the first player in each line a pair of mittens. Give everyone a piece of wrapped candy. At a signal, the first player in each team puts on the mittens, unwraps the candy, and pops it into their mouth, the second player does the same, and so on, down the line. The team that finishes first wins. ************************************************************************* Santa Snowball Toss Cover the bottom and sides of a rectangular cardboard box with construction paper. On a piece of paper, draw a Santa face with a large mouth. Paint or color the face with markers. Glue it to the box and cut out the large mouth. Cover six large marshmallows (or use cotton balls) with plastic wrap. To play - Place Santa against a wall. Give each player six tries at throwing marshmallows into Santa's mouth. See who feeds Santa the most. ************************************************************************* Gift Wrapped Place a candy cane for each kid inside a small cardboard box and gift wrap it. Put the wrapped box inside a larger box, wrap it, and then select another larger box until the package is as large as you can handle. To play - have everyone sit in a circle. Play music and pass the package around. When the music stops the player holding the package starts to unwrap it. When the music stars, the package is passed again. When the candy canes are found, share them with everyone. ************************************************************************* "Pass the Snow Ball." We used an oversized white pom-pom as our snow ball. The children all sat in a circle quite close together. At first, we practiced passing the "snow ball" to each other keeping our hands behind our backs. Then I sat outside the circle on a chair and closed and covered (no peeking!) my eyes. When I was ready to open my eyes and guess who was holding the snowball, I told the children so they could all be sure to have their hands behind their backs, making it more difficult for me to guess. After I guessed who was holding the snow ball, that person became the "guesser" and the game went on from there. ************************************************************************* Christmas is coming The goose is getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. If you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you" I make a stove pipe hat from poster board and leave the top open and the children pitch pennies into the hat. ************************************************************************* Pass The Parcel Put a special gift into a box for the classroom (It may be bubbles, a new book, chalk etc.) Wrap it in may different layers of wrapping paper. Have the children sit in a circle and pass the package around to the music. When the music stops have the child unwrap one layer of paper. Continue on playing music until all layers have been unwrapped. have the last person share with the group w. Christmas Art ************************************************************************* Christmas Concentration Cut rectangular "cards" out of red construction paper, then cut slightly smaller rectangles from wrapping paper (two from each kind) and glue to construction paper. Laminate and play Memory/Concentration. You can also use pairs of Christmas stickers. ************************************************************************* Holiday Matching Game Take a cardboard egg carton, closed up, turn upside down and spray paint it gold ( or red, green or silver). Cut slits in each egg cup. Make matching sets of six holiday shapes; I used Santa's from the Ellison die cuts, six colors, 2 of each. Laminate, tape to a tongue depressor. The children find the matching pairs and insert them into the egg carton holder. We sing a song using the "Brown Bear" sequencing, ie. Red Santa, Red Santa, who do you see? I see a Blue Santa looking at me.....continue for all colors used. You can do this for any symbols you want to use, for any holiday. ************************************************************************* Sensory Sand Provide wet sand in sensory table. To the sand add cookie cutters, Jell-O molds, and other kitchen items. ************************************************************************* SensoryTableGlitter Dough... Combine 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar. Cook for 3 mins. or until mixture pulls away from the pan. Sprinkle glitter on top of a table top. Let the children work the glitter into the dough. Children can make cookies and candies out of the dough. *************************************************************************** Sorting Candles Provide several candles. Children can sort by height and color. ************************************************************************** Jingle Bells Sort Collect several types of bells. You can find them cheaper after the holidays. Put out four containers. One for the small, medium, and large bells and one to keep all the bells in. Have the children sort them according to size. ************************************************************************* Ornaments On The Tree Cut out five felt trees. Mount each one on heavy cardboard. Label with the numbers one through five, it may be helpful to put corresponding number of dots also. Cut out felt circles. These will be used to decorate the tree with appropriate number of ornaments. ************************************************************************* Rudolph" Sandwiches Take a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, cut it crossways for a triangle! Then decorate it for a reindeer! With two raisins for the eyes, five or six raisins for the mouth, broken pretzel bits for the horns, and a bright half a cherry for the nose!! Voilla, you have Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, ready to eat. ************************************************************************* Christmas Books Merry Christmas Book Bailey Birds Christmas Brock The Littlest Angel J Tazewell Christmas Eve E Hurd The Silver Christmas Tree Hutchins How The Grinch Stole Christmas Dr. Seuss How Little Porcupine Played Christmas Slate Night Tree Bunting