Christmas Tree Theme Crafts and Activities

Theme: Christmas tree

Bible: 25 Days of Christmas

Math: shapes and colors

Sensory: Christmas tree sensory tub

Crafts: pinecone ornaments 

Bible:

For the month of December we have been doing the 25 Days Of Christ In Christmas! E opens an envelope a day; inside the envelope is a small ornamnet and puts it on his little Christmas tree. I share with him the meaning of that Christmas symbol. To learn more about this advent activity click here: 

http://mylittlesonbeam.blogspot.com/2013/12/25-days-of-christ-in-christmas.html?m=1

Math:

A fun and interactive way to learn colors and shapes.

Craft:

I love how these pinecone ornaments turned out! I squeezed the glue on the pinecone and E placed the extra small pom poms on. When the Christmas tree

Pinecones where all dry I hot glued string to the top. We made a few of these to give to friends and family. I personalized it by adding the letter of their last name.

Sensory Aticity:

Made a little sensory tub activity to go along with the Christmas tree theme. I hot glued wire onto green pom poms and wrapped wire on button shapes for ornaments. For the snow I just used salt and fake fluffy snow you can buy at any craft store.

Note: the wire I used turned out to be too thin! I would recommend using a thicker gauge wire. A wire as thick as a paper clip might be better. E was getting a little frustrated that the wire would bend as he pushed it into the foam pinecone. 

Here are a just a few more crafts we've been making this month for gifts:

E painted wood frames (.99 cents from Michaels!) to give to the grandparents. I will place one of the pictures we took during our 2013 family photo session.

I wanted these frames to be 100% one of a kind from E. So, I let him pick which colors he wanted and let him paint the frames the way he wanted. When he said he was done I put that frame aside to dry. I layed out buttons, pom poms and felt flowers and he chose the ones he wanted to put on the frame. I love how unique they came out! 

We are using these bags to hand out little gifts for his buddies and cousins. 

For the month of December I took a break from organized lesson planning and we just made crafts and enjoyed spur of the moment activities. After New Years we will start up again with letter of the week. The theme for January will be winter and space!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope these ideas inspire you! :)

Blessings,

Erica

Love to hear from you!

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DIY Christmas Gifts {stocking Stuffers} for Children

 I've been busy! Made these great "Little" gifts for an Artisan Fair that took place this last weekend. 

These  learning activities make great gifts and stocking stuffers! Most of the materials, to make these gifts, I bought at the Dollar store, Walmart, and the bargain bins at Target! These are lots of fun to make and easy to put together!

Child, using their pincer grasp, will place colored pipe cleaners in the holes of the strainer. Parents discuss colors as child places them in the strainer. 

BUY IT! My Little Strainer learning activity is now available for sale on my etsy store!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/174823335/busy-bag-my-little-strainer

Buy it! My Little Shapes and Colors is now for sale on my etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/188206782/busy-bag-colors-shapes

This activity is LOTS of FUN and is a big hit with my 2 year old!! 

Match the clothes pins to the corresponding color shirt! 

BUY IT! This activity is now for sale in my Etsy shop!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/196986302/my-little-laundry-bag

I was inspired by a Pin on Pinterest from Come Together Kids, where she made "magical" playdough as party favors! I love this idea! When I made the playdough, with my son, it was too Sticky. The blogger from Come Together Kids also mentioned that one of her batches came out too sticky too. I think the ingredients should  have only called for 1 Tbs of oil instead of 1.5 Tbs? If you bought this at the Artisan fair I hope you read this before you make it! If it is too sticky you will just need to add more flour until it becomes the consistency of playdough.

Here is the link to the recipe:

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708866384748/



The Christmas Miracle playdough cupcake kit includes:

-1 silicone cupcake liner

- paper cupcake liners

- xsmall cupcake liners

- 2 cookie cutters

- 7 candles

- 2 small glitter tubes

- 1 bag of confetti 

- 1 bag of the dry playdough mix

Here are the links to the science experiments and recipes you can make with the items in the Science Kit.

Liquid or solid? (Oobleck):

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708866508809/

Color Explotion:

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708865313646/

Balloon Blow it up:

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708866615836/

Gelatin Sensory Fun:

(you can add any objects of your choice)

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708866642881/

Instant Snow: (from the Dollar Tree)

Homemade Paint:

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708866151197/

Homemade Fingerpaint: 

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708865950894/

Sidewalk Paints:

http://pinterest.com/pin/345721708865955993/

****Update**** want to buy this kit? It is now available in my Etsy shop! 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/174616880/my-little-apples-sorting-kit

Hope these gifts inspire you to make something personal and special for the children in your lives! :)

Merry Christmas!

Blessings,

Erica 

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25 days of Christ in Christmas

I was in the hunt for an advent activity for my two year old son. I was looking for an idea that was Christ centered. There were two activities I was thinking about using: The Jesse Tree and The truth in the Tinsel. Both are great ideas and I will do them with E at some point. But for this year I wanted something simple and I wanted an idea that incorporates what he will be seeing during the month of December. So, I decided to do some research and come up with my own activity which I'm calling: 25 Days of Christ in Christmas. I made a list of 25 symbols we see during the "Holiday" season and I researched to find the meaning of the symbol which will link to our Savior Jesus Christ.  

Here is the list of the 25 "Holiday" symbols:

1. Evergreen Tree

2. Heart

3. Poinsettia

4. Wreath

5. Christmas Tree

6. Christmas lights

7. Holly Leaf

8. Drum

9. Fruit

10. Christmas globe ornament 

11. Gingerbread cookie

12. Santa clause 

13. Stocking

14. Rudolph 

15. Tinsel

16. Snowflake

17. Snowman 

18. Angel

19. Baby Jesus

20. Bow

21. Bell

22. Candy cane

23. Star

24. Crown

25. Gift

 

I wanted my son to see Jesus during Christmas since that's why we celebrate Christmas to remember and celebrate our Savior's birth. I went on a hunt to find a small ornament for each Christmas symbol. There were a few I couldn't find in the size I wanted so I just made them (wreath, baby Jesus, and the crown). The rest I found at the Dollar store, Michaels and CVS.

For each symbol there will be a meaning that links to our Savior Jesus Christ and a scripture verse. The last 8 ornaments will tell the story of the manger.

Since I just finalized what advent activity I was going to do a week ago, this activity is in progress. Follow My Little Sonbeam on Facebook to receive the meaning behind each symbol and scripture verse. 

If you haven't started an advent activity with your little ones, join us! Purchase an ornament for each symbol above and follow us on Facebook! I will (try) to post by 9am, Pacific Time, every morning on Facebook.

Here is Day one

Merry Christmas!

Blessings,

Erica

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