Coffee Filter Christmas Trees

Materials needed:

Coffee filters

Stapler*

School glue

Glitter

Sequins, especially Christmas themed like silver stars and gold bells

*staples can be colored green w/permanent marker to allow them to blend with the tree color

Fold coffee filter in half three times and staple the open edge.

Give children art materials and let them create!

Happy Holidays!

*Stephanie*

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Dried Oranges Ornaments

We dried oranges (thank you, RedTedArt for the idea) and let the children string them with ribbon bows. They look lovely!

First, I sliced the oranges myself. I gave the children small bowls of salt mixed with spices like cloves and cinnamon.  The purpose of the salt was to just thin out the spice and make it last longer. The children used pinches of spice to decorate and add aroma to the oranges.

The children enjoyed smelling the spices. By this point in the year, they are quite familiar with the different holiday spices.

We baked the oranges on parchment paper at 200 degrees for a few hours.  If you keep the temp low, you can't bake them too long.  We had to flip them a couple of times.

Later, I gave the children large embroidery needles and embroidery thread to string the dried orange slices and pre-tied bows:

The outcome was gorgeous and they enjoyed it. I will bake more orange slices so more children can make the garlands.

The thing is, children like to do things that they can take seriously. Play, for them, is one of those things. But to give them real needles and real thread and these beautiful orange slices that we spent time preparing...all of these "real" things call upon a sense of connection to each other and to the world.  They are contributing something meaningful, for themselves and, in this case, to our Christmas tree.

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Pulleys. Well, at least pulling.

As if I needed another reason to love our Mulberry Tree.

Not much to say because the kids figured out what to put in, pull up, pull down, pour out, pass to their friends.  It's like almost everything else, we provide the supplies, they fill in the blanks.

We had to do some minor repairs and problem solving (like the broken bucket handle below), but it was (is) worth it.

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Snow Flakes

Inspired by Angela at Barron Park Preschool, we made a snowflake station:

We also painted snowflake coffee filters with water colors. Mixing just a tad of glitter glue makes a very nice shimmer.

Then, the children cut their own snowflakes (again, courtesy of Angela) and we compared them to which snowflake pictures they best resembled.

It was fun to stick the wet snowflakes to the wall!

Snow Paint

I was surprised at how much the children enjoyed this old, tried and true favorite. I admit it--I really thought my kids were too old to enjoy a simple, sensory experience with three dimensional paint.  

Say what???

Well I personally enjoyed how the paint felt between the brush and the container. It was cathartic. 

We mixed:

some shaving cream

school glue

blue glitter (can be omitted or sprinkled afterward)

Goes on thick, dries puffy and and smooth. 

Bl and Ro wanted to do their projects together, which involved a lot of criss crossing of arms and exchanges of words:

This moment made me realize how badly I need a drying rack:

The kids couldn't keep their hands off the finished products.

Snow Dough

If you get a text from me that looks like this:

(:^)

that's just Frosty the Snowman saying 'hi'.

We read a couple of snowman books this week:

We tried this snow dough recipe from Nurture Store and it worked out great! Explaining to the kids why our "snow" dough was warm was interesting!  It's very easy and is a good activity in a pinch. If you modify the recipe (see link) and add a tad extra water and white flour to balance the stickiness, it doesn't dry as fast and will stay "sticky". We gave the kids trail mix, ribbon pieces, and pipe cleaners to add embellishments.

Some kids discovered "melting" the snowmen...

And yes, some of these pictures were taken at night. It gets dark at around 5:30pm these days.

*Stephanie*

Why not?

Why not add some cushions and holiday reading beside the Christmas tree?

Modeling Clay Creations

Inspired by this simple idea from Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning, I set out modeling clay, colored and plain toothpicks, buttons, and pipe cleaner pieces.  I just love using old placemats and dollar store ceramic bowls. Children appreciate "real" stuff.

 "Lollipops"

 "A funny guy"

 "A building vehicle"

 Cookies and lollies

Sa's collection

The children asked if we could get it out after naptime, so I separated all of the pieces back into bowls and trays and decided that our playdough table will be just for modeling clay for a while.