T'was the last week of preschool before Christmas break... and we read the most delightful story! I was familiar with the authors and illustrator of this book, but not this specific title. It was a great read and teaches the lesson to be kind and thoughtful to everyone. The kiddos caught on to the message and loved it.
We looked at all the presents and hidden shapes in the story and then went on a shape search in my house. They got it! They found circle tables and clocks, rectangle doors and windows...stars on the Christmas tree. Each time we found a shape in the house, we collected a small shape made of paper. After we had found all the shapes, we matched them up with shapes on a paper and glued them together.
For our craft, we made Christmas trees with different shapes (from candy) as decorations. The kids could have done this forever if we had the time. The hardest part was not eating as they went!
After reading the story on Thursday, we decided to be nice and give back like the mouse does in the story. So we made a treat we could give away.
We dipped pretzels in chocolate and jazzed them up with Christmas sprinkles.
Here is a finished product. I think they were starting to understand that it is better to give, than to receive.
For our craft this time, we made an ornament. We took cut up straws and jammed them into styrofoam balls to make a Christmas star. The kids kept calling them firecrackers instead of stars. Fair enough--as the original idea was 4th of July/Christmas Ornaments, depending on the colors you used. This took them longer than we had time for but they liked doing it nonetheless. You can see what a finished product looks like
here. Kudos to this website for my craft ideas this time!
Merry Christmas from the Busy Bees!
