Christmas Round Up

I am so excited for the Christmas Round Up because that means it is Christmas time!

Christmas Books and Recommendations

Get our 2009 Christmas Book Recommendations

Straw Bed for Jesus

Help your children focus on the reason for the season.

Making the Holidays Memorable

Ideas for getting the most out of your holidays.

Christmas Symbols Poem

A poem for reminding us what all of our decorations symbolize.

Christmas Symbols and Meanings

A list of all of the Christmas Symbols and what they mean.

Gingerbread Tips

Making gingerbread items can turn into no fun for everyone if you don't do it right. Find tips for making this a fun tradition rather than a point of contention.

Candy Train

Make a yummy candy train.

Snowmen Ornaments

A darling keepsake ornament to make with your children.

Homemade Ornaments

More ideas for homemade ornaments.

Reindeer Week

Enough reindeer activities to more than fill a week up. They will leave you with your head spinning.

More Reindeer Activities

Just in case your head was not spinning fast enough, we added a few more reindeer activities.

Christmas Tree Art

A great fine motor activity that results in a very cute decoration.

Christmas Tree Rice Krispy Treats

Yummy, festive treats.

Time Capsule

A fun tradition to do each year.

Pumpkin Turkey

I have these Jack-Be-Little pumpkins all over my house, serving as a nice decoration. I kept looking at them wanting to do something unique with them, and came up with this. I think they make darling decorations! This is a great activity for fine motor skills practice.

AGE RANGE
If you assemble the turkey, 12 months and up. The child will need to be older for assembling.

SUPPLIES

• Pumpkin (you could also use a pear, apple...whatever)
• Crayons
• Feathers
• Toothpick
• Scissors
• Tape
• Nail
• Turkey head printed out

ACTIVITY

1. Have your child color the turkey head.
2. If your child is able, have him cut out the turkey head.
3. Tape the turkey head to the toothpick.
4. You can either slide the toothpick into the turkey or poke a hole in the turkey with a nail and have your child slide it in.
5. Poke holes for the feathers. Either you put them in, or have your child do it if he is able.
6. Done!

Apple Turkey

(Here's the super-cute healthy version)

Of course I went to take a picture of our cute apple turkeys, and my camera battery ran out of juice.

I got this idea from the Disney Family Fun website, an idea by Tiffany Yang. She has a cute website called Cute Food For Kids with a few other turkey ideas you should check out, like handprint cookie turkeys. So cute!! (Which makes sense, given the site name). :)

I precut the head and beak. The stand for the turkey is just the bottom of the apple cut off and flipped over, then toothpicked (is that a word?) on. Toothpicks, marshmallows, some sort of gummy snacks/Dots type candy and an apple. Easy! If you don't have marshmallows, you can use all gummy snacks.

Thanksgiving Round-Up

Here is the round-up for our previous Thanksgiving posts:

Thankful Basket

For teaching Gratitude.











Involving Young Children on Thanksgiving Day
Tips for getting your young children involved in this holiday that can seem ambiguous to them.

Making a Menu
Have your children make a menu for the big meal.

Thankful Place Mat
Have your children make a place mat to eat off of that shows the things they are thankful for.

Positional Words: A Thanksgiving Game
A game for all ages.

Turkey Table Toppers

Make some center pieces for your meal.










Thankful Drawing

Get the whole family involved in drawing a picture of the things you are thankful for.






Thanksgiving Books
Last years Thanksgiving books.

Thanksgiving Books 2010

Here are some books for you to consider for Thanksgiving!

I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson

This story is very funny and is sure to get giggles out of your children. This is a fun Thanksgiving Read.







The Pilgrims Thanksgiving from A to Z by Laura Crawford

This book is full of infomration about Thanksgiving. It isn't just a picture book with "P is for Pilgrim". It has the letter, what it stands for, then at least a full paragraph elaborating on the item. So you could focus on the letters with your little ones (young toddlers, pretoddlers, and babies), but also go into much more historical detail with your older children (toddlers, preschoolers, an children). I really like this book.




Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell

This is about chilren recounting what they learned about Thanksgiving Day. It has good information while still being interesting.







Thanksgiving Mice! by Bethany Roberts

A group of mice put on a play about the first Thanksgiving.








The Thanksgiving Surprise by Peggy Archer

Two brothers go looking for a turkey to eat on Thanksgiving. They end up coming home with a giant pumpkin instead. This is a fun story.






I'm A Turkey by Jim Arnosky
This is a fun turkey book to read. I would get this from the library, but probably not buy it.





A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman

Raegan mentioned this last year, but it is so good it must be mentioned again. This is our favorite turkey book this year, and really is worth it to own this one. I like it so much I found myself a little taken aback when the librarian didn't read this for story time to the Kindergarteners today--she read a different turkey book! Then I had to laugh at myself. So it is a good one.

Blast from the Past: No Bake Turkey Cookies {plus Spinoff}

We recently made Raegan's no-bake turkey cookies and of course the kids loved them. A whole lot. What's not to love? Sugar, sugar, sugar.

We also recently went to story time at the library, where they made something similar:

I thought that was a great way to lessen the sugar impact if desired. Yes, I was a weird mom squeezing in there to get a picture of the turkey with my phone :) All for you people! All for you. 

This cookie is one half of an oreo, candy corn, and a Hershey's Kiss. You could do a malt ball instead of the kiss. The kiss is stuck on using white frosting (when we made our turkey cookies, I had some green frosting already made so we used that instead! Kids don't care).

Leaf Man

In the Fall Books post I recently did, I mentioned the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. Leaf Man shows many pictures of different leaf creations and is a really cute book.

After reading the book a couple of months ago, I had the genius idea for a cute activity. I later explained it to Brayden while we were on a hike and I was gathering leaves.

"We are going to use these leaves to make a leaf man just like in the book Leaf Man," I said.

"Oh, you mean like I did at Preschool last year?" He asked.

"You did that at preschool last year?" I questioned.

"Yeah. Remember the guy made out of leaves." That was the end of the conversation.

Actually, I knew exactly what he was talking about. That's what that was :)! You can see it pictured above. Honestly, at the time I thought it was a bunch of leaves he found glued to a paper. But now I see it is a leaf man. I also see that Brayden's amazing preschool teacher beat me to the punch of a great idea. I will just say I am glad my girls will be going to school there, too :)

The activity is pretty self-explanatory. You read the book Leaf Man. You gather leaves and such to make your own creation. Then you create.

In Leaf Man, there are more than simply "men" images. The leaves form to make all sorts of things. 

Paper Plate Turkey

First of all, sorry for the terribly small picture. I took this with my phone at Brayden's school. I helped in Brayden's class this month as they made these cute turkey plates. IF I remember, when he brings it home this year, I will take a picture and add it to this post so there will be a better picture for future reference. This is a fun Thanksgiving decoration! It is great for counting, colors, fine motor, an art project, and following a sequence of directions.

Supplies

• Two white paper plates
• Six long strips of paper: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple 
• Six short strips of paper: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
• One short orange strip of paper (for the feet)
• One printed turkey head (try this one http://kidsdomain.com/craft/cegif/pum-tur3-head.gif)
• Crayons
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Stapler (optional)

Method

1. Have the child color the bottom of each plate brown. This is the side that you do not eat from.
2. Have the child color and cut out the turkey head.
3. Have the child cut the strips of paper so the ends resemble feathers. Most of the Kindergartners cut the ends like at an angle.
4. Have the child cut out the orange strip to look like feet.
5. Have the child glue the turkey head on the brown side of one of the plates.
6. Have the child glue the feathers on the white side of the other plate. Glue the tall feathers in the middle and short feathers on the sides.
7. Have the child glue the feet on the bottom of the same plate.
8. Staple (or glue) the two plates together.
9. Viola! You have a turkey.

Tip: If you want this to be an activity where your child follows a sequence of directions, it is a good idea for you to make one ahead of time. Then give the instructions and set your turkey out for the child to look at as an example. I would say this is most appropriate for children 4 and older.

Sponge Painting Fall Leaf Picture

This is something Kaitlyn did last year as a two year old. This is a great activity for children in that age range because they can make a picture that they can recognize--it turns out similar to how they pictured it. It is also great for children of all ages because all children love to paint :)

Materials

• Sponges
• Paint
• Picture
• Crayon
• Paper plates

Activity

Cut a sponge into square or rectangle shapes. Set out some paint on paper plates. 

Have your child draw a tree trunk in the middle of the paper.

Have your child dip the sponge in paint and put it on the paper around the "trunk" to make leaves.

Done!

Fall Books 2010

Time for some Fall books! Be sure to also check out last year's fall books list from Raegan.

Mouses First Fall by Lauren Thompson

Learn about colors and shapes of leaves with this book.









The Bumpy Little Pumpkin by Margery Cuyler

A story about loving something for what it is and not judging by appearances.








Let It Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

This is Kaitlyn's favorite so far this year. She loves the bouncy rhymes in this book.








When the Leaf Blew In by Steve Metzger
Metzger is a well-known, popular author. This is a funny book with a cause/effect theme in it.







Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

This has fiction and nonfiction mixed together. This is about the cycle of leaves throughout the year, so a great science-focus book.







There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves! by Lucille Colandro

A funny, silly book with a familiar character--the swallowing lady :)








Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

This story manages to be artistic, informational, and slightly funny at all at once.