Christmas Crafts!

I know it's a wee bit early to be getting excited about Christmas, but when you're surrounded by kids who are constantly chatting about Santa and BabyJesus (yep, they run the two words into each other, such is their enthusiasm!), Christmas trees and the hope of snow, it's impossible not be feel so merry!
So here's our Chistmas Crafts!

Snowman Jars

My original plan had been to replicate an project I did when I had some work experience in a Steiner school. We made very similar jars, but instead of doing snowmen, we made a leaf pattern. The snowmen were too sweet to pass up, after I saw the little face here.

Step 1: Organisation!
I put up a poster asking parents to bring in used, clean jam jars. We were soon up to our ears in them, it was great! Then I got some silicone paper. It's just like baking paper, but it's practically clear, not brown. I cut it into strips wide enough to wrap around the jars.
I cut out some orange triangles for noses, and punched a LOT of holes in black paper for 'coal' for the eyes and smiles (the kids could probably do that last step themselves, but I was stuck to time constraints on this one).

Step 2: The kids each took a strip of silicone paper and covered one side in pva glue. Then they arranged little faces using the shapes I cut out. This part was fun, and sticky! All their little fingers were covered in glue and neatly making faces was a challenge! They did a good job though!

Step 3: Wrap the glue-y side of the silicone paper around the jars, and pop a tea-light inside. They're so pretty! I'm making a whole bunch myself, for Christmas decorations!

Christmas Trees

This project takes mere minutes and has great results.

Step 1: Cut out semi-circles from green card.
Step 2: The children decorate the card with markers and stickers.
Step 3: Bend the card into a cone shape and tape together.
Step 4: Stick a paper star on top and a kitchen paper tube on the bottom and voila! Christmas trees!

Gingerbread Men

My Dad is a baker (I know, heaven), and he gave me a big box of undecorated gingerbread men he made. I bought some icing pens, sprinkles and mini Smarties and let the kids go loopy! They really enjoyed this one, probably cos I let them nibble away as we worked. We tried to save some to send home, but I don't know how successful we were. Here's one before he met his untimely end...

We're doing one more Christmas Craft, but I'll post about that one next time. It's time consuming, I'll tell you that much! Feels only right I should devote a whole post to it!

Hope you're enjoying all the Christmas buzz! :)

Winter Fun!

November was a busy month, I didn't get a chance to sit down and write once! We started preparation for our Christmas Play. Early, I know, and the songs are on constant repeat in my head now, but still fun!
I split my sides laughing at the kids dancing away and getting really serious about the whole business.

Here's an update on November's Crafts.

We did some more handprint trees. I think I'm going to do these every season now, and put them together in one big sheet for the kids to take home at the end of the year. It'll be a lovely momento of their time in pre-school!
This time, instead of doing outlines of their hands in crayon, we did handprints with brown paint. The snow flakes came in the form of white finger prints, and we tore up some crepe paper to make the frosty ground. Here's everything you'll need:

And here's how they look when it all comes together!

Another sweet winter project we did was make cloud mobiles. I found this lovely craft on another blog, and altered it slightly. You can find the original here.

We painted cardboard clouds in blue, grey and white, then waited for them to dry.

I cut out a bunch of mittens from felt, in all different colours. It would have been nice for the kids to do this themselves but felt is tricky, and their cutting skills aren't up to it yet.
They did however do the next part themselves, which was to cut twine, (I tied it to the mittens then) and sellotape the twine to the back of the clouds. The final piece was a little copy of our winter poem. I photocopied it on coloured paper and gave them out. Here's the finished things!

I think they look brilliant! Our Winter poem goes like this:

The Winter wind blows,

The Winter wind blows.

Icy fingers, icy toes!

Bright red cheeks and a bright red nose!

It gives me the shivers!

From my head to my toes.

In November, we also learned about shape. I played a game called Hunt the Shape.
Step 1: Present the children with a large paper shape. Name it.
Step 2: Tell the children to close their eyes, then you hide it somewhere in the room (somewhere pretty obvious, like stuck to the wall)
Step 3: Ask one of the children to 'Find the ______', and name the shape again.
Step 4: When the child finds it and brings it back, ask 'Is this a _____ (shape)?', and when the children confirm it is, burst into a round of applause!
Step 5: Repeat with all the children.

When they have the hang of this, present a few shapes at a time, and hide them all together. Then say "Can you find the circle?" I think this one really helps them to identify their shapes, and the praise from the other children really spurs them on!

We also did Shape Collages, matching shapes to their friends. Just some matching and sticking in this activity, but they really enjoyed it.

Then, at the end of the project we coloured in a picture of a Shape Robot. We said "Let's colour in all his squares first" and "Next let's do his triangles!". At the end, we named the robots, just for the craic. There were some gems, like Zia, Buzz and Sean.

So, November was a busy month! And December is looking much the same! We're doing a couple of sweet Christmassy Crafts, and we are having so much fun. I love being a pre-school teacher, the magic of Christmas will never go away!