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

PTL  things are FINALLY back to normal in my little cyber-world.  Few things have the capicity to incapacitate me, as much as computer problems.  I'm such a control freak that when something happens that is out of my control, it is way beyond frustrating. Anyone relate? 

We now have a brand new server and everything seems to have transferred well.  Sorry if you experienced broken links and error messages while I was swinging from the ceiling pulling my hair out.  I'm all better now, and can't wait to share lots of new stuff that I played around with, to keep my sanity, while experiencing insane glitches.

This is a potpourri of winter-themed "stuff."  My new personal favorite I call My Shapely Snowflakes.  I was watching the overhead at church Sunday; they had a lovely snowflake posted on the message.  The center was of all things a hexagon!  That's a "toughy" shape that I'm always on the look out for fun things to do with it. 

Beside the Pentagon and a few nuts and bolts, it's hard to give children an example.  My husband thinks I should shut off my creative enthusiasm every now and then, especially at church, but I was so excited to design My Shapely Snowflakes I sketched a note to myself. 

You can make a set to use as flashcards, a bulletin board, interesting assessment, or independent matching center.  I've also included a spinner, so students can play a game. Click on the My Shapely Snowflakes link to grab it. 

One of my Y5 standards was that students could recognize and spell their names.  Although my kiddo's accomplished this by the end of September, they always enjoyed any activity that involved their names.  

With that in mind, I designed this wintry alphabet snowman.  You can give your students the option to spell their name, so they have a sweet sign to decorate their bedroom door with, or have them think of a winter word they'd like to spell out like: peace, love, joy, snow, winter or even welcome.  Hang them in the hallway with the caption: "_________________'s Kinders Are Simply Brrrr-illiant!"

There are 4 different sets of alphabet cards to choose from.  You can also print, laminate, trim and use for a variety of games.  A 3-page list of ideas is included in the packet. This is the one I made for my grandson.  Click on the link to view/download the Snowman Alphabet craftivity.

If you're tossing in some poetry to cover a variety of genres, have your students make an acrostic poem.  Students of all ages enjoy making them, and they are a nice way for children to review letters and words that begin with those letters.  I've made a template for a snowman, winter, and frozen word acrostic.  Click on the link to check out The Snowman Acrostic craftivity.

I know many of you are out there searching the web for quick, easy and inexpensive ideas for your kiddo's to make as a gift, or for you to give to them.  How about a pin? The snowman tea light is not my original idea.  I found it all over Pinterest as a magnet and decided to diddle around with one as a pin.

As a child I LOVED my Santa, Rudolph and Snowman (pull-the-string and light-up-the-nose) pins you could buy at the "dime" store.  Anyone else remember those? 

I used E6000 to glue on the pin back, wiggle eyes and bow; added the mouth with a permanent Sharpie, and cut off the finger of a black glove to make the hat.  Yes it stretches that much!  Roll the end up, so they don't look frayed and add a dot of glue to keep it rolled.

The Dollar Store sells these gloves in all sorts of colors.  I think red or green would have looked nicer, but I had black around the house so tada! (2 pair makes 20 inexpensive pins/magnets.)  You can also buy a pack of tea lights there too.  Make sure you position the hat so that you don't cover the light switch.

Finally, another sweet gift is the Christmas Tree Lights bookmark made out of finger prints. "You light up my life with your love, so I left some finger prints to brighten yours."  Baby Kaiden and I made this sample; my daughter loved it. 

This is included in the Bright Student packet, which also has several games, + 2-sets of alphabet cards.  Click on the link to view/download the Christmas Lights craftivity.

Thanks for visiting today.  I try to design and blog daily, so I hope you can stop by tomorrow for more FREEBIES hot off  Diane's sketch pad.  Feel free to PIN away.

"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” - John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley: In Search of America

1-2-3 Come Do Some Christmas Craftivities With Me

If you'd like to put a lid on the question: How many more days 'til Christmas vacation? make a countdown craftivity.  Last week, I designed one with a gingerbread using a paper chain, so you could work on patterning, but if you'd like your kiddo's to see and practice real numbers, then you might want to make either Santa's Countdown Beard or the Finger Print Wreath.

Counting down the days to Christmas, by gluing a cotton ball on a numbered circle, is not my original idea. 

I've seen it many times, in a variety of ways, all over the Internet, so  I thought I'd draw a Santa and give this idea a whirl too.  Click on the link to view/download the Santa's Countdown.

Make one for your class and take turns having students glue a cotton ball on each day, or run off a copy for each child and set this up as a daily center. 

An easy way to set up independent centers, without taking up a lot of room, is to use TV trays.  Simply keep all of your students' Santa's in a basket on one of the trays and a bottle of glue and a container of cotton balls on another.

If you'd like an alternative to Santa, I also designed a Countdown to Christmas Wreath. 

So that you can reinforce the fact that December has 31 days, both the Santa and wreath have numbers to 31. 

Have students circle the 25th with a red or green crayon so they can readily see that special day. 

Students can opt for a paper-heart "bow" or a real ribbon one.  For the added "awww-dorable" factor, have children glue a photo in the center. 

To countdown days, students press their thumb onto a red stamp pad and place it on the appropriate day.  Click on the link to view/download the Countdown Wreath.

If you're looking for some other keepsake wreath activities, finger painting one was a Y5's favorite. 

Because learning colors was one of our standards, I'd often have students mix 2 primary ones to make a secondary color. 

This also was a teachable moment for reviewing equations: Yellow + Blue = Green.  A "magical" way to do this, is by fingerpainting.

Put a dollop of yellow and a much smaller dot of blue on their tag board wreath cut out.  Children swirl and mix 'til they have a pretty shade of green. 

My kiddo's often squealed in delight:  "Mrs. H. come quick!  Come see!  My paint is green!"  Their joy was worth the bit of mess.

Set aside to dry.  Later, students add finger print holly berries and glue the poem in the middle: "I made this pretty wreath for you.  I made it mixing yellow and blue.  Yellow + blue as you have seen, makes a lovely Christmas green.  The red berries--I'll give you a hint, are made from someone's finger print.  This wreath is a circle it has no end.  It's like my love, that I now send." Click on the link to view/download the Fingerpainted Wreath Craftivity.

Another idea is to draw a circle in the center of a large square of tag board.  Paint child's hand with green paint and have them press it around the circle to make a wreath.  (To keep things bright, paint-press; paint-press etc.)

My son, Jason, did this activity in Y5's 29 years ago and I still have it somewhere in the basement! Click on the link to see a tutorial of another mom doing this with her daughter Elsie. 

Instead of paper, she used fabric.  To make a fabric project do-able for a class, simply have students bring in a plain white pillowcase.

Reindeer are the perfect animals for making hand and foot print "craftivities."  I've designed several for you to choose from. 

The Lunch Bag Reindeer is A wonderful keepsake art project that makes a great manipulative to whole group assess spatial directions, and body part identification.

This paper bag puppet is terrific for interactive play during a reading of many December stories featuring reindeer characters! Click on the link to view/download the Lunch Bag Reindeer.

My personal favorite reindeer "craftivity" is Rudy.  His head is made by tracing a child's foot with their shoe on.  The antlers of course are hand prints cut from a darker shade of brown construction paper. 

Add a neck and wreath collar and you have an adorable keepsake. The poem on the collar: "These are my finger prints oh so small, that I left on your heart and every wall.  This is my hand you used to hold, when I was only ____ years old."

Ribbon, wiggle eyes, a red pom pom nose and a photo of the child, add those finishing touches. Click on the link to view/download the Reindeer Hand and Foot Print Crafts. 

Also in this packet is Reindeer Noses.  "Sliders" are a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess, in this case, 2D shapes.

To review an ABAB pattern as well, have students alternate coloring the shapes red and black.  Call out a shape; students slide to it and hold it in the air. 

Call on quiet students to continue to choose shapes 'til all have been reinforced. You can see at a glance who is is having difficulty.  I'm designing The Reindeer's Nose easy reader today; so I hope you can stop by tomorrow to grab that freebie as a nice language arts follow up.

The last craftivity in the reindeer keepsake packet features a reindeer that students color. You can add wiggle eyes and a pom pom nose as well.  Call students up to the painting center and paint their hand a dark shade of brown.  Press to make antlers.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything from my site. 

"To dance with the moon, you need only become friendly with the dreams of a reindeer." -Unknown