Book-n-Craft Advent Activities December 6th

Our 6th book is Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson. Wilson's Bear books are soo cute. We own a few of them and I have intentions to own them all. Bear's friends want him to stay up for Christmas even though he is supposed to be hibernating. Bear continues to stay up while each of his friends fall asleep all the while making cute gifts for them.

I started out with an elf search-n-find. I hid little elves numbered 1 through 12 in the apartment. I gave J a tally sheet and every time she found an elf,  she would cross it off. When she found all of them, she them placed them in number order. Elf Hunt was found at Teachers Pay Teachers. It is a free download but you have to set up an account (which is also free).

 

J has asked that we do this again. So maybe one day next week, I will make it harder. We practiced our alphabet by getting the snowflake to the snowman. These were found here.

In the book, Bear makes gifts for all of his friends. So J made gift tags and she cut them out herself!

This is our simple calendar to keep track of when we will be able to open presents. J kept asking me when it was Christmas and I replied when the Christmas books were all read. She didn't like that answer so I made this. Everyday she moves the star to the next number and she knows when she gets to the bottom, the next day is Christmas. I found this circle advent here but I didn't use the activities planned for them. I just used the circles. Don't mind the elf...Still working on Christmas......




Book-n-Craft Advent Activities - December 5th

Our fifth book is The 12 Days of Christmas. This isn't actually the book that I have. I bought the book here at a used sale and it is from Marks and Spencer, a European distributor. But any of The 12 Days of Christmas books will do. I personally love the one by Robert Sabuda which is a great pop up or the one by Jan Brett. I love Jan Brett!

After reading/singing our book, we played a 12 Days of Christmas matching game. When we flipped over the cards, we sang what it was. I found this game at Musings of Me blog, though I can't find the direct link.

I found a 12 Days of Christmas app that was free. It plays the song in the back ground and as you turn each page, you can touch the new gifts. It was cute and the graphics were great.

We made a partridge ornament from fun foam. The pattern for the partridge was found here. She chose the colors. I told her she could use pink for the wing if she picked another color for the body. Then I brought out the glitter, something she has been waiting for. I believe it will be a glitter Christmas this year. I imagine I will have to restock my glitter supply this year.

This was our end result -

Now J is just waiting for us to put up the tree so she can hang her projects on it. On another note, let me show you what I have been working on.

This is my IKEA ornament tree that I bought last year for 1TL (the only after season sale we had here!). I have been making different ornaments for it. These are my new creations - tree photo holders. They are made from felt and were hand sewn. I found the template at Wee Folk Art. I omited the year. I think they turned our cute.

After I planned The 12 Days of Christmas for J, I found another website with some cute printables for the song/story. I may even print them out still and use them this month, especially the number writing practice sheets. 1+1+1=1 has some great printables, check her site out. We are off to a new book, enjoy your day. Enjoy your holiday season because, even though it can be hectic, you can enjoy seeing the lights and listening to Christmas music - we don't really have that here. I miss the little things sometimes.

Monday's Discovery

DH recently received a gift from one of his students - a pair of silver chopsticks. Awesome gift cause we could use some practice eating with chopsticks. What does DH do? He teaches the kids to sword fight using them. I only got one really good picture since they were moving but I thought it was worthy of Monday's Discovery.

Kaleb enjoyed the chopstick fighting. They look lethal, don't they? They have blunt points on the tips, no worries. These are the fun things that their Dad teaches them!

Book-n-Craft Advent Activities - December 4th

Our fourth book is Little Porcupine's Christmas by Joseph Slate. It is illustrated by Felicia Bond who just happens to be the illustrator for the If You Give A....series of books. It is a cute story of Little Porcupine wanting a part in the play but his classmates won't let him have one because he is too prickly. He ends up saving the Christmas play!

We have been learning the 12 Days of Christmas song. I found these cute printables from 1+1+1=1. First J had to put the cards in number order. Then we sang the song and put the correct pictures on the numbers.

 

She would point to each picture as we sang the song. Her favorite part is five gold rings.

We played another game based on the song. This was to have her practice her number writing. We each had a game sheet and we rolled dice. We could either combine the dice (addition skills) or use each number separately. Then we wrote the numbers on the correct pictures. The first one to complete their board won. J won this time.

J then made a porcupine ornament. She painted the ends of the porcupine and a small paper plate brown. After it dried, she glued them together and added toothpick "spines."

I am hoping the toothpicks will stay, if not, I have to come up with another idea. Then, J made a playdough porcupine using toothpicks.

J just about cleaned me out of toothpicks. She kept asking for more because she felt it wasn't prickly enough. Cute book. Only how more to go.....?

Book-n-Craft Advent Activities - December 3rd

Our third book is another favorite - The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This book is not necessarily a Christmas book but it does have snow in it. (work with me...) This is a charming book about a boy and a snowy day. We started out our activities with making snow dough. I am not sure where I found the recipe.

I had to half the recipe since I haven't found baking soda in bulk here yet.

She stirred in corn starch and water. For an added bonus, J added silver glitter. Now, when we made this, we were stirring and stirring and it just wasn't gettting firm. So we added heat and then cooled it in the frig. That seemed to do the trick. We made snowmen with it, adding toothpicks and bottle caps for hat.

Here is our snow family.

Snow Dough recipe

2 cups baking soda

1 cup cornstarch

1 1/4 cups water

glitter if you want to

cook on low heat until firm

We then made a snowman snack using a banana and some pretzels.

She cut the banana and added the arms. The eyes were little pieces of marshmallow (from America).

We played a game of Pin the Nose on the Snowman which I found here. She had so much fun,she kept trying.

My favorite was the nose on the door frame!

Our craft was an ornament made from an egg carton. She painted it white.

After the paint dried, she added eyes, a nose, and a scarf.

A little scary but kinda cute. Still counting down to Christmas, have a good one!

Book-n-Craft Advent Activities - December 2nd

Our second Christmas Book-n-Craft is If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff. I just love her books. I own most of them. These are great books to use in the classroom as well. This is another book that my Darling Mom brought me along with the stuffed mouse that is in it! She is always on the look out for great books for the kids! (By the way, Kaleb loves that mouse) The book starts out with popcorn and ends with popcorn, so to celebrate, we made popcorn!

I added pink food dye to the oil while popping so it came out tinted pink. We then watched a movie and made a popcorn string.

 

She wasn't totally thrilled with my Christmas movie pick but she got over it.

I now know why very few people string popcorn anymore. It was harder than it looked and the popcorn kept breaking. (not to mention, my fingers are now pink)

J made a heart shaped pink and purple mouse ornament from some foam that I brought from the states. Of course, she chose the colors!

Then we played Penguin Knock Out from Walking by the Way. We used foam shapes and rolled dice. J had to cover the number she rolled. The first person to cover all of the numbers won. It was a cute game and it would be even cuter if I had different penguing markers or erasers.

We will use this game through out the month of December. Two Book-n-Crafts down, yay! See ya soon!

Book-n-Craft Advent Activities December 1st

Our first book is Mrs.WishyWashy's Christmas by Joy Cowley. This is probably one one the all time preschool books - especially Mrs.Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley. Apparently they are out of print because their prices are alittle high. My dear Mom brought this book to me. Thanks Mom! I love when she brings me...uh..J books!

We played snow tic tac toe. We used this game last year and I brought it out again. I love this face! We read the book and then worked on a Mrs. Wishy Washy ornament using two small paper plates.

She painted one red and the other a cream/facial color. We waited for them to dry and then we glues them together. While she was waiting, she played some Christmas games on computer. (in case you were wondering, she dressed herself)

She cut up some yellow yarn to add for hair.

Here is our final product. I think it turned out kinda cute. I used the small paper plate but it still turned out alittle big. Since all of the animals sneak into Mrs. Wishy Washy's bathroom, J and Kaleb also took a bubble bath. Our first Book-n-Craft is done. Only 23 more to go. Happy Day.