In our school, we are allowed to discuss winter holidays as long as we discuss them all! We do mainly focus on Christmas, though, as that is what the majority of the population celebrates.
Here are some of my favorite ideas from this past year's holiday lessons!
This is one of my all-time favorite holiday displays! The kids LOVE creating their own Rudolph by painting a paper plate and adding eyes with various craft supplies! The antlers are their traced hands and the red noses are Red Globe Christmas lights! This is one string, I found a box at Target for $12! The kids love the light-up display of their artwork! The papers in the middle are the kids' letters to Santa. They told me what they wanted, I wrote it in, and they colored the border.
Cinnamon Applesauce ornaments are a quick and easy gift idea for parents! Be prepared to make a MESS if you take on this project! It is a sensory experience to the max! All you need is cinnamon, applesauce, a mixing bowl, and a wooden spoon. I let the kids take turns scooping in some applesauce and shaking cinnamon into the bowl. They love the way the cinnamon smells. The whole SCHOOL will smell like cinnamon. Seriously. Let the kids mix up the dough with their hands. They will be a wonderful, goopy mess. After the dough is mixed, experiment with the consistency by adding more cinnamon if needed so the dough is plyable but not sticky. The finished product should feel like play dough and should not stick to the table. Roll it out, cut it out with a cookie cutter, make a hole in the top with a pencil, let it dry, and voila! An ornament that will keep its wonderful smell for years and will remind your students of this wonderful day every year when they take it out of the box!
During December, I add green play dough, tree cookie cutters, buttons, and other craft supplies to the art center so they can create and decorate their own Christmas trees.
This awesome activity works on so many skills! The children will create their own string of lights using precut lights labeled with color names! Hang a string in an easily accessible area, put some clothespins on the string, and let the kids go to town! For the little ones just learning colors, allow them to put the lights on in any manner they choose. The older kids can create AB and ABC patterns. The readers can begin to recognize colors and their written names. Everyone practices fine motor skills by pinching the clothespins! This activity can also be done with letters and numbers. The kids can match uppercase and lowercase letters, or put letters and numbers in sequential order on the string! So many variations! What other variations can you think of? Write them in the comment section!
We did a gingerbread unit this year. The childrens' favorite activity was the one that they got to EAT gingerbread! I made small gingerbread cookies for the kids using Betty Crocker's gingerbread cookie and cake mix. It's only $1.29 a box! I used 2 boxes to make a bunch of cookies. Make sure to follow the directions on the side of the box for the cookies so that they keep their shape in the oven! Each child got a cookie in large group time. They were instructed to take one bite only at first. We graphed how many childrens' first bite was the head, right leg, left leg, right arm, or left arm. Then the children wrote their names on post-it notes and put it on the appropriate section on the graph. As you can see, the head was the first to go for most of our cookies!
This bulletin board was almost completely created by the students! The first step was painting mini paper plates with craft paint. The kids painted the plates in all different ways to create the candies. The next day, we went in the hallway to get cuttin'! I drew out a template of a house and of swirly icing with a highlighter. The kids cut it out using scissors. I stapled the house and the icing up on the bulletin board, followed by the candies. The icing that makes the doors and the windows was made and measured by the kids using the scraps from the roof icing! It was so neat to see them measuring and talking about how many more they would need to create a square, etc. The next day, the kids create gingerbread cookies to add to the display.
This was a small group activity that we did. The kids each received a laminated Christmas tree. There was a bucket of buttons on the center of the table. The children were instructed to explore with the materials freely. Some of them create patterns. Some of them sorted by color. Some sorted by button shape. Some of them decorated randomly. On the other side of these trees, there is a number on each star so the kids can also work on counting and creating number sets.
This was a sensory bucket I created. I dyed elbow pasta green and bowtie pasta red. The pasta sat overnight in a bowl of rubbing alcohol and food coloring. Don't be shy with the food coloring- the more the better! Use enough rubbing alcohol so the pasta is completely immersed. Once the pasta dries, add it to your sensory table. I also added candy canes, jingle bells, plastic scoops, red and green pom poms, red and green magnetic letters, and a magnet board. The children loved this center!
I hope you found some great ideas for the holiday season!
What are your favorite preschool lessons at Christmas time? Leave them in the comment section below!
Until next time...
*Bite Sized Lessons*
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