1-2-3 Come Do Some Winter Craftivities With Me!

Hopefully things are winding down this last week of school before Christmas Break.  If you're looking for a few last-minute things for your kiddo's to do, you've come to the right place.  Here are some quick, easy and simple activities, I think your students will enjoy. 

Since the 3D cylinder shape was always the "toughy" for my Y5's to wrap their heads around,  I tried to do several projects each month involving that shape.  The cylinder-shaped Santa windsock, was one of their favorites.  I made Santa's beard by tracing their hand once and then cutting it out 4 times.

Children work on a flat surface; when they are done, then help them roll their Santa into a cylinder shape.  Pulled-cotton and glitter, add those finishing touches. Punch a hole in the top, tie a yarn loop, so it can hang from the ceiling. 

Review the triangle, oval, and circle shapes as well.  If you have your kiddo's do a craft on party day, these are great as a whole-group, or independent center activity. 

To expedite things, make sure you trace and cut their hand prints the day before. Click on the link to view/download the Keepsake Hand Print Santa

Quite a few of my favorite Christmas Stories involve mice, so I thought it would be fun to design a sweet treat for my Y5's, featuring this Christmas character.  You can review the oval shape with this craftivity as well.  His ears are heart-shaped.

I don't buy peppermint candy canes for my kiddo's, as when we graphed whether they liked peppermint or not, most of them did not. 

This was true every year, so I looked for the flavored candy canes.  You can get a box of a dozen at The Dollar Store.  Wiggle eyes and a pom pom nose added extra pizzazz.

You can make these for your students as a gift, but I liked doing them as a craftivity the last day of school.  I used silver wallpaper for a sparkling effect.  You could also glue metallic wrapping paper to tag board.  Click on the link to view/download the Christmas Mouse.

Another peppermint activity I call "Me Mints."  I made the larger one out of a sturdy 8-inch paper plate.  Students striped the edges.  Enlarge a photo, cut into a circle and mount it in the center of the plate. 

Wrap with clear cellophane.  (You can buy it by the roll at The Dollar Store.)  Twist the ends and tie with curling ribbon. 

These make a super bulletin board boarder, or have students glue the "greeting" to the back and suspend from the ceiling. 

I also made a "Mini Mint" ornament template for you. Run off the peppermint candy.  Students color with markers and glue to a circle of tag board. Follow the above directions to complete this "Awww-dorable" craftivity.  Click on the link to grab this FREEBIE.

Finally, Wally,The Wallpaper Snowman, would be fun to do on the last day, so that you would have some winter decorations up when your students return from Christmas vacation. 

If you look closely, you'll see that Wally's face is textured.  I made the circles out of embossed wallpaper.  You can buy a roll of white textured wallpaper for less that $5, or visit a paint, wallpaper, or home-decor store, where they sell wallpaper, and ask if you could have or buy a sample book. 

I used these sample books for die cuts, banners, backgrounds, and stationery for my students to write on.  I've included 4 winter writing prompts so that students have a choice.

Children write a rough draft and when they have finalized it, they write it on the circle and glue it to the back of Wally.  These look wonderful dangling from the ceiling.  Click on the link to view/download Wally,The Wallpaper Snowman Writing Prompt Dangler.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you have the time to drop by tomorrow for even more FREEBIES.

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." - Charles Dickens from A Christmas Carol

Connie Container Snowman A Recycled Gift

I’m big on recycling so I try to dream up some sort of hands on activity for my students each month involving recycled items.

Since everyone has tin cans at home they are one of the easiest things for a parent to save for us.  Cans are also a way to review the cylinder shape and make handy holders for a variety of things.

Connie Container Snowman is perfect for rulers, scissors and other tall “stuff”.  She’s made out of an asparagus can.

We eat a lot of asparagus at my house so I find it easy enough to simply save enough cans for my students.

If you don’t, simply send a note home at the beginning of the school year with a list of “SAVE these things” and explain to parents that their child will be doing projects through out the year involving these items and you just wanted to give them a heads up; that way you’ll always have a few extra’s for those children who don’t bring things in.

My Y5’s LOVE to paint and I find that even though their “mess-terpieces” are not as “perfect-looking” as I’d like them to be, they have fun, are learning, and are more of a keepsake because they did the entire project.

However, if you want to expedite things you can pre-paint the white bottom and have really little ones simply paint the top hats black. I use glossy acrylic paint.

An easy way for students to paint is to put their hand INSIDE the can and rotate as they go.  Make sure there are NO rough edges on the inside so they won’t get cut.

My mom gave me a smoothing tool from Magic Chef that goes around the lip of cut cans and presses down the edges so I never have a problem with this.

In the morning, paint the white bottom first. Let dry and then paint the black in the afternoon or on another day. 

Little ones will drip and slop paint, so make sure they are working over newspaper and have paint shirts on.

On a file folder, trace around the top of your can to make a circle template. Decide how wide of a brim you want to have.  Mine is just shy of an inch.

Draw the brim around your traced circle.  You will be cutting the circle out so that you can slide it over your can and rest it at the base of the snowman’s hat.  No gluing is necessary if you cut it so that it fits snug.

Pre-cut your black hat brims.  I used black foam.  Tag board and construction paper are cheaper, but you really have to be careful that they don’t tear apart when students slide them over their cans.

Using a Q-tip and the dabbing method of simply dotting on a small amount of paint, model how to paint on a snowman’s face.

I find that it’s a great idea to have students practice on a sheet of scrap paper before they paint their can.  This also allows them to design a few different faces to see which one they like the best.

Hobby Lobby, Michael’s Crafts and JoAnn Fabrics all sell ribbon by the bolt for a dollar or less.

Choose something that looks like a snowman’s scarf and tie it on the bottom of the cans for that finishing touch.  You’ll need a little over 12 inches for each student’s scarf.

Another Recycled Snowman Idea!

Use shorter veggie and soup cans, and instead of making a head of a snowman, students can simply paint the entire can blue, black or even brown.

After they’ve painted their cans, using a toothbrush, splatter the dried cans with white paint to look like falling snow.

I used a nail and hammer to punch holes in the sides of my can and then simply added a bit of wire with a rag bow on the top.

Craft stores have a huge assortment of colored wire if you want to make your cans less rustic looking.

You can put just about anything in these cans to give as a gift, including student work, a photograph, little “I love you notes”, a paper heart with a poem on it, candy etc.

Later parents can use them to hold markers, pens and pencils etc.

Click on the link to view/print this article's directions and pix.  Recycled snowman: Connie the Tin Can Container Snowman

Be sure and pop back tomorrow for another recycled snowman made out of a paint stick!

Do you have an activity that you do with recycled "stuff"?  I'd enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com

Cylinder Santa Windsock: A Great Keepsake for Christmas!

The cylinder is one of the tricky 3-D shapes for my Y5’s to grasp, so I try to do things with cans and toilet paper rolls.

We also make at least one windsock a month and December is the perfect time to make one that will become a treasured keepsake.

Cylinder Santa is not that difficult, and reviews a variety of flat shapes as well as brings home the vocabulary word cylinder!

Here’s How:

• Depending on the ethnicity of your students, choose a facial color construction paper for Santa’s face.
• This will be the cylinder.
• I use the smaller sheets of construction paper and glued them together so that my paper is 21 inches long.

• Run off my templates on a duplo.
• Click on the link to view/print the Cylinder Santa Handprint Windsock patterns OR...
• Click on this link to print the Cylinder Santa handprint windsock patterns, pictures and this article's directions.  Cylinder Santa Handprint Windsock "Stuff"
• Cut Santa’s brim strips on a paper cutter.
• To cut down on time, and because my students are younger (this is a lot of cutting) I have the holly leaves, nose, mouth, and eyes pre-cut.

• A room helper has also traced and cut their hands the day before.  She traces once, and then cuts 4 hands at a time, then paperclips them together.
• Students cut out their hat and circle pom pom.
• They fold the hat down and glue their circle pom pom to the point.

• Teachers always want to know why my cotton fur always looks so real and my students don’t glue the whole cotton ball on their artwork, even when they are told not to.
• It’s because I have them pre-rip the balls apart ahead of time, making it a contest to see who can make the nicest pile of ripped up cotton FLUFF!
• Since I’ve been doing that, their piles no longer resemble a cotton ball, their fingers get a wonderful fine motor work out, and their artwork from Santa’s cap to adorable sheep, look very realistic!

• Put a dollop of tacky glue on a small paper plate. Students use their index finger or a Q-tip to rub glue over their circle pom pom and then pinch pieces of fluff and stick the cotton pieces to the sticky surface.
• Have them repeat the process for Santa’s brim.
• I have the pre-cut pieces lying out at a table.  Once children have completed the fur step, they pick up the appropriate pieces and return to their workspace and glue Santa’s face on.

• Remember to model how to do this before your students make their own Santa windsock.  You will then have a sample to hang up in front of the class for them to refer to.
• When children are gluing on santa’s mustache remind them not to glue down the ends so that they can fold them forward giving a 3-D effect.
• Younger students may need help fanning out their handprints as they glue on Santa’s beard under his smiling lips.

Special Extra's:

• Students come up to the "Trimmings" center to work one-on-one with me.
• At this time, I let them rub their pointer finger in dry pink rouge powder so they can give their Santa some cheeks. Copper and bronze also look nice.
• I’ve experimented with other things, and like this even better than chalk. My students think this is “way cool” especially the girls.

• I use double-sided green pin-dot scrapbook paper for the holly leaves.  One side is darker than the other and gives their Santa just a bit more pizzazz than plain construction paper.
• Children choose two red sequins and a ruby flat-backed rhinestone for the 3^rd berry. They adhere them in a cluster in the center of the leaves with glue dots.
• I make veins on the leaves with Elmer’s glue and they sprinkle green glitter over the top.

• Set aside to dry and then using a glue stick, rub a stripe of glue down one side of their paper and roll their Santa into a cylinder.
• Staple top and bottom for durability.
• Punch a hole on either side, suspend with yarn, and hang from the ceiling.

• The Santa Cylinder Windsocks look darling running along the top of a wall in the hallway.
• A black Ellison die-cut caption can read:  “Here’s Ho Ho Hoping you have a very Merry Christmas!  Better behave; our Santa’s are watching!”

Do you have a tip you can share of how you teach the cylinder shape or a fun Christmas craft?  I'd enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com

Be sure to pop back tomorrow and I'll share a fun reindeer puppet that you can make out of a lunch bag!