Advent Calendar 2012

I've always grown up with an advent calendar- whether it be one filled with little chocolates, the simple paper kind where you opened the flaps each morning to see a new picture, or one that actually held little trinkets. Last year I made my first handmade calendar, mostly for the OWL whom was 3. We had a blast with it!

Here is this year's calendar ....

With 24 individual paper pockets......super simple!

The best part is it made with items I already had on hand:

paper pockets ( purchased at Dollar Tree)

stickers

ribbon

clothespins

Now of course, this calendar will have a one year use, but there are simple ideas out there where you can make a calendar with containers that will last for many years.  

Some ideas:

http://www.tipjunkie.com/holiday-crafts/christmas/christmas-advent-calendar

http://prudentbaby.com/2011/11/by-craft/25-adorable-diy-advent-calendars-to-make-2/

http://www.shelterness.com/50-cool-diy-advent-calendars/

I decided I wanted our calendar to include activities - but you could very easily make one with a simple trinket/treat inside, or a combination of both. Inside each of our pockets is an activity for us to do that day.  Now to make it easier, much easier, on myself I first printed out a blank calendar template for the month.  I put each and every event we had planned already for the month on the calendar.  This included items such as: trip to Santa's Village, Santa's Land at the GYC, Edaville RR, Visiting Santa, Santa Train,Christmas Party, etc. All of these items will be activities for our calendar. Super simple - using things we already had planned to do.

Using a simple piece of scrap paper with a little sticker decoration I  wrote each activity down and placed it in the correct pocket.

After the events on my calendar were done I came up with a list of other activities we could do as a family to fill in the rest of the pockets. I made sure I wrote this on my printable calendar page so I knew what I was doing each and every day!  Here are some of the ideas:

Bake Christmas cookies

Make salt dough ornaments

Make Applesauce cinnamon ornaments

Write a letter to Santa

Watch a Christmas movie and have popcorn

Decorate Christmas cookies

Make a gingerbread house

Go out to see the lights after supper ( Edward St.)

Deliver cookies to neighbors

Make reindeer food

Buy canned food and deliver to food pantry.

Have picnic dinner in front of Christmas Tree

Make Christmas cards for friends

Make ornament for tree.

Set up nativity

Decorate trees

Play Christmas game

Put up train around Christmas tree

The beauty of this year's calendar is the pocket design - if I need to make a change or adjustment to an activity based on how the day is going, I can simply slip it out to make changes!

My plan this year is to take all of the photos from our Advent ideas/activities and make them into a photo book.

These sites have great ideas for activities to use for your calendar, especially with little ones:

http://www.activity-mom.com/2011/11/2011-activity-advent-countdown.html

http://truthinthetinsel.com/

Enjoy and have fun with your countdown to Christmas!

Candy Cane Bathroom Paint

Recently I came across a fabulous site that just specializes in bathtub sensory experiences! What fun ideas!  Be sure to check out Bath Activities for Kids for tons of theme based ideas that can easily be done in your tub.

Now tubby time in my house is usually daddy time however, when daddy is working late or has a meeting I take over!  Adding anything besides two children, a washcloth, shampoo/soap and a few bath toys to the tub would send him RIGHT over the edge so I have to be the one to add in the fun!

We started off simple, with Candy Cane Bathroom Paint/Foam.  The best part was I had everything I needed to make this at home: shaving cream, peppermint extract/oil, and red food coloring.

My two were VERY excited when I presented them with our tubby time addition!

The kids loved painting themselves and each other.  Then the OWL practiced painting his name. We took turns saying letters and writing them on the wall. 

As the paint entered into the water it turned our bathtub into a pink and white swirl candy cane of it's own.  The kids were ecstatic and the bath room smelled just like Christmas!  It was perfect! 

I can't wait to go back and find some more fun ideas - my two loved it and I'm hooked!  

Looks like I'm in luck for more Christmas/Winter Tub ideas since it is Christmas Week on their site and they will be presenting a different idea each day!

24 Days of Christmas Crafting Fun!

I'm always looking for preschool friendly crafts, especially around the holiday time.  This year my two each have a Christmas tree  in their rooms and I know making some ornaments for their trees will be right up their alley.  As we were unpacking decorations yesterday they both loved finding ornaments/crafts they had made last year.  I've found having a list of ideas and the supplies on hand make it much easier and a lot less stressful for mama! 

Now, thanks to Pinterest, ideas are SO easy to find.  This list is for super easy crafts that preschoolers can do almost, or pretty close to it, on their own.  These are ideas that truly for the 2-5 age range and from some of my favorite sites to follow. Hope you find a craft or two to do with your little ones!

First off, a special shout out to one of my favorite sites - Happy Hooligans ( you can like her on FB too).  She runs a in home daycare in Canada and her ideas are simply perfect for little ones:

Day One - Easy Initial Letter

Day Two - Simple Snowflake Ornaments

Day Three -  Tissue Paper Candy Cane Ornament

DayFour - Popsicle Stick Snowflake Ornaments

Day Five - Button Wreath Ornament

Don't forget to check back with Happy Hooligans as she will be adding more fabulous ideas daily! 

Now some ideas from other sites....

Day Six - Popsicle Stick Christmas Trees

Day Seven - Pom-Pom Ornaments

Day Eight - Craft Stick Snowmen

Day Nine - Pinecone Christmas Trees

Day Ten - Easy Button Ornament 

Day Eleven - Paper Ornament Craft

Day Twelve - Macaroni Wreath

Day Thirteen - Paper Plate Tree Garland

Day Fourteen - Reindeer Popsicle Stick Ornament

Day Fifteen - Tissue Paper Wreath

Day Sixteen - Beaded Ornaments

Day Seventeen - Decorated Christmas Tree

 

Day Eighteen - Christmas Cards

Day Nineteen - Candy Cane Cutting Project 

Day Twenty -  Paper Chains

Day Twenty- One - Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree ( Two) 

Day Twenty-Two - Fruit Loops Candy Cane

Day Twenty - Three - Christmas Bells

Day Twenty Four - Paper Plate Santa

Of course I always keep a basket full of the premade kits from Dollar Tree, Joann's, and Michael's  on hand too for the days where I need everything all in one place and ready to go for me!

Happy Crafting! 

Preschool Arts and Literacy Club - Leaves

We had our second meeting of our Preschool Arts and Literacy Club and our theme was LEAVES. Once again we had the meeting at my home, but this time we were a bit more smart in our approach.

First things first, the playroom was closed!  It made the whole event less stressful for me and clean up was a breeze.

We had many activities set up around the house for kids to participate in while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.  I had emailed the mamas beforehand to let them know where the activities would be located and what was available at each station.  Kristen and I hope to have these same sort of activities available each session so the kids can become used to going to an activity while waiting to come together as a group. This week we had:

Leaf rubbing plates....

Pumpkin Spice Play-Dough Tray

Fall Sensory Bucket

Felt Board Activities - both of these AWESOME activities came from the busy bag exchange I belong to - love that group!

                                 

Having the activities available for when the kids came into the house worked wonders - and kept them all engaged until we were ready to begin.

Our first book was Fletcher and the Falling Leaves - this was a sweet story about a fox and the changing of the leaves. 

After the story we made collages with "treasures" we had found out in nature. We displayed our treasures on contact paper.  We had pieces of scrapbook paper for the kids to use as a border or frame around their collage if they so wished.  We then covered over the top of the collage with another piece of contact paper.  The end result was a fabulous fall display, perfect for any window in your home. 

( Note: Sassy Sis used her scrapbook pieces as part of her overall collage, not just as a frame!)

Our second book was a perfect book for the little ones to get involved in the story. We read We're Going on a Leaf Hunt - adapted from We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  Since the story has a repetitive nature and many lines that lend themselves to hand motions - the kids were thoroughly involved in the story.

Our project after this book was a tree collage with stamped leaves. We used wine corks for the colorful fall leaves.  I found this awesome idea here. Both of my two loved this project - especially using the corks as a stamper.

Our snack this week was crackers and cheese - the cheese cut out in the shape of leaves, of course! 

And we sang some songs - the favorite being:

Creative Movement/Song: This Is the Way We Rake the Leaves(Tune: Mulberry Bush)
This is the way we rake the leaves, rake the leaves, rake the leaves
This is the way we rake the leaves, on an autumn morning
This is the way we pick the apples, pick the apples, pick the apples
This is the way we pick the apples, on an autumn morning
This is the way we feed the squirrels, feed the squirrels, feed the squirrels
This is the way we feed the squirrels, on an autumn morning

It was another great meeting of our club! We read, sang songs, did some art, enjoyed some treats, and had fun together.  One more week at my home and then we'll be on to having our group at the library meeting room - which I have to admit I'm a bit excited for! Stay tuned, our next session's theme will be PUMPKINS.

Finger Painting in a Bag!

 After our Preschool Arts and Literacy club did a project with painting in a bag I knew I needed to do it again! We decided to make some fall leaves - perfect for decorating our home.  For this project all you need are some gallon size plastic bags, assorted paint colors, and full cutouts from cardstock or heavy paper. 

Simply, put your cut out shape in the plastic bag.  Then add some globs of paint.

The the fun begins, all you need to do is spread out, smear, push, and squish the paint all around, trying your best to cover over the entire shape. This turns into a great color mixing activity as well. The best part....the mess stays IN the bag!

Now the actual painting portion of this project is mess free.  However, the mess does happen when you pull out the shapes, put in a new shape, and add paint.  Of course, my little ones had to be part of the switching...and the paint pouring....and well you get it, we got messy!

Our final products were beautiful - they were a melody of all fall colors.

My two LOVE when I use their art work to decorate our home.  These were perfect to use to make a garland.  All I needed to do was punch a hole in them, string through some ribbon.  And now they are part of our fall decoration in our play/school room!

Fall Themed Sensory Fun

I'm a huge advocate of sensory play.  I try to always have numerous sensory activities available for my two to enjoy.  A fabulous explanation on the benefits of sensory play, with ideas, can be found here.   The two activities I posted about today are simple to create - most use items around the house or which can be found at your local dollar/discount store.  They provide hours of creative play for your little ones as well.  Sounds like a win:win to me! 

Tomorrow we'll have two new sensory activities that are related to the season of fall.  First is our sensory tote. The filler for this tote is popcorn kernels and inside are all things fall: pumpkins, acorns, leaves, scarecrows. A simple walk through the Dollar Tree, Michaels, or JoAnns will provide you with numerous low cost items to make your own tote.

Totes are easy to put together ,but I know I can always use some inspiration.  Here are some ideas for an autumn sensory tote:

http://www.pre-schoolplay.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=autumn#!http://pre-schoolplay.blogspot.com/2011/09/autumn-sensory-play.html

http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/2011/10/preschool-at-home-fall-sensory-

box.html

http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2010/09/september-sensory-tub-playdough-fall.html

http://handmadebeginnings.blogspot.com/2010/09/sensory-bin-autumn_24.html

We also will have a new play dough set up.  For the past year I've been making my own play-dough.  I love to add scent and color to it and let me tell you this Pumpkin Pie play-dough smell delcious.  The recipe is easy to follow- in fact the Owl and I made it together today.  I wanted it to come out orange, but I'm pretty sure our pumpkin pie spice took over with the coloring.  Either way my two are going to love it! 

I've included some fall cookie cutters, some rolling pins and 4 plastic pumpkin cups of embellishments: foam leaves, mini pumpkins, fall table scatter, and fall themed confetti.  I can't wait to see their creations!