Book-n-Craft Advent Activities December 12th

No Christmas book collection would be complete without How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. This has to be a Christmas classic. From the cartoon when I was younger to the full feature film, this story has delighted all. My daughter Keke has a facination with all things Seuss so this is her all time favorite author. We started with coloring some grinchy ornaments.

Her favorite is Cindy Lou Who. Then, J colored some reindeer antlers since the Grinch turns his dog, Max, into a reindeer. After she put on the antlers, we had to act out the story and I got to be the Grinch!

We worked on our teen number recognition. She would flip over the number cards and, if she said the number correctly, she could keep the card.

Of course, we ended with watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the cartoon version. She explained all of my mistakes during our reinactment of the Grinch and has asked me to do better next time (which is apparently tomorrow morning). I just love being the Grinch!  I believe we are half way there!

Monday's Discovery

Monday's discovery - if you jump long enough, you just wear out!

He was a busy boy, can you tell? 



Book-n-Craft Advent Acitivities December 11th

I have soo many favorite authors and Jan Brett is definitely on my list. I love her stories and her art work. Her books definitely need to be shared! The Gingerbread Baby is no exception. We laughed at all of the trouble the gingerbread baby got into and how Matti caught him in the end. First, we made paper gingerbread houses. J took her time to color hers so carefully that I printed one and colored with her as well.

I took the easy way out this time. I found a gingerbread sticker kit awhile back (probably last year) and I gave it to her. She made several gingerbread boys and girls. This kit was nice since it did not require glue and the gingerbread people fit in the houses we made.

Here is the finished gingerbread house and baby.

We took the extra stickers and made a gingerbread paper chain for our living room door.

Don't mind the jammies. These activities were done on the same day. We had to go grocery shopping and we finished our "school" stuff when we got back.

Our game for the day was Penguin War. Each penguin card had a different set of dots and we played war with them. The person who laid the penguin with the largest number on it won the cards.

She was winning - see the smile?

Next, we practiced measuring different items around the house using gingerbread men. I would ask her how many gingerbread men would the item measure and she would answer 100! She thought that was funny.

We measured our markers, paints, Kaleb's high chair tray, our table...

Cute book and J was excited to do school at night. Isn't that funny? Still working through the books and having a great time. Smile:)

Book-n-Craft Advent Activities December 10th

Our 10th book is The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown. You know the Margaret Wise Brown of Goodnight Moon fame? (love it!) My copy doesn't have this cute cover but it is still the same story. It is a story about a little boy who can't walk and tthe joy the little fir tree brings him.

Our game of the day was Don't Eat Pete. It was found at Walking by the Way in her Christmas game pack. This game is supposed to be played with M&M's and you eat the ones that make it to the board. But we used all of our candies on the cookies so we used buttons. This is a type of Guess Who game where one player has a card with one of the people on the board and the other asks yes/no questions to determine who Pete is. J didn't like asking the questions, she like to be the one holding the card. She liked these and we played until we did all of the people on the board.

J made a Christmas tree for the front door by painting two large paper plates green. I love paper plate crafts, the only bad thing is you can't get these type of paper plates here. So I have to bring them in.

We had to wait until the paper plates were dry so we ended up finishing our craft the next morning. (the reason for the jammies) J used her fingerprints for lights on the tree. I stapled them together and we now have a tree for our front door!

Not too shabby....rather cute. J was excited that it was going to be on the door for everyone to see. Only 14 more books to go......

Book-n-Craft Advent Activities December 9th

Our 9th book is Mr. Putter and Tabby Bake the Cake by Arthur Howard. This was one of Keke's favorite series and I wanted to share these with J. Mr. Putter and Tabby are trying to find the perfect gift for their neighbor but they are unsure of what to do. They decide they will bake a Christmas cake. The first few tries are flops but they finally get it right. Cute book. Instead of baking a cake, we decided to bake Christmas cookies. J has been asking me to make cookies since we put up the tree.

We made the dough in the evening for the next day. I gave J the ingredients in small separate bowls and she added them to make the dough.

The next day, in her pinkalicious tutu, J helped to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies.

She then decorated some of the cookies with the T version of M&M's (not quite the same) and T chocolate chips (which she munched on while I wasn't looking). We left some for frosting later.

They turned out cute. I just hope they are yummy since this is the first time I used T M&M's to decorate cookies.

Here are the frosted ones. She chose the colors. I love the tongue! She is really working hard.

We received some books from a family leaving the country. J wrote them a thank you note completely in the color.....pink!

We played Trim the Tree game. I found this game at Walking by the Way. You roll dice and cover the numbers. The one with the most markers on the board wins. It was a tie. This is good practice for J and her counting/addition skills.

The craft was a Christmas tree complete with glitter sequins. I glued it to a paper cup so it would stand up.

It will be a cute decoration on our table, out of the reach of Kaleb. It is beginning to look alot like Christmas around the apartment with all of our crafty things. Counting down......Happy Day!

Book-n-Craft Advent Activities December 8th

Our 8th book is The Bear's Christmas by Stan and Jan Berenstain. I found this book at a book sale here and I remember reading the Berenstain bear books so I thought J might enjoy the antics as well. While I was in the states this summer, I checked out my mom's supply of little Christmas ornaments. For awhile, I have been wanting to make a Seek-n-Find game for J.

We used the rice that we dyed awhile back and I also used a large enough bottle so I could remove the items to change it. I took a picture of every small ornament so I could make a picture card for J to cross off when she found the item. I also laminated the card so we could reuse it.

J chose the items to place in the bottle and filled it up with rice.

Just make sure to leave some room for the rice to move around. J is searching for the items on her list.

She is checking them off. This toy passed through the family and, although there were a few items that J slipped in without my knowledge, it was well received. Some links for other homemade eye spy games -Small For Big; and Heart of the Matter.

We started with a craft of kids sledding. J colored the kids.

She cut them out herself. She has been working on her cutting skills.

J made a dog to ride on the back of the sled. She thought they were lonely. Our game of the day consisted of throwing snowballs into numbered IKEA buckets. Since we don't have real snow, I had made these snowballs before. I placed the buckets on the stairs to make it harder and to prevent Kaleb from grabbing our buckets mid-game.

Well, we made it to the 8th book....only how many more to go?

Book-n-Craft Advent Activities December 7th

Our 7th book is Under My Hood, I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin. This isn't necessarily a Christmas book but I thought it would fit since it is winter.

First, we started with a craft recycling a milk bottle into a snowman. Keke is all about recycling now. This is relatively new concept and Keke has been learning about the importance of recycling (which we always did in the states). I have seen these around using larger milk bottles but these are the ones we have here.

Cute. These are really cute with a strand of lights inside but I don't have those either. Then we played Christmas Bingo.

 

We used buttons as bingo markers. J made a hat ornament to hang on our tree. It is made from foam and she created a pattern at the bottom of the hat using squares.

This is our finished ornament.

As a special treat, we made edible snowflakes from tortillas and powdered sugar. After heating them up in the microwave, J brushed them with oil and I baked them. When they were done, J sprinkled powdered sugar on them. She liked these so much that she promptly ate them while watching the Grinch. (ours don't look like those at Family Fun but they were still good)

And here is J presenting them to you.

We are moving on......