Calendar Cards: Christmas

I'm a bit of a Christmas nut (hehe) - I REALLY love Christmastime and look for any excuse to get crafty during this wonderful time of year.  That said, I truly enjoyed making these calendar cards for all of you.  I know I've been taking a looong (and much needed) break, but it doesn't mean I'm not thinking about all of you!

Happy Christmas!

 Click here to download

Please keep in mind that I format these myself, so they're not perfect, but they'll certainly get the job done. : ) Also, as with all of my printables, these are for your personal use only - please do not sell or offer them in a giveaway. Thank you and enjoy!

~Thank you for your comments!~

On Our Shelves - December

Our theme for December is, of course, Christmas. I just love this time of year and I really enjoy bringing the feel of the season into our classroom. There's red and green everywhere you look! :)

Practical Life

Christmas Tree Decorating. We did this last year, too, and it was a big hit.

Tweezing Mini Bows. These little bows were a part of the amazing box of goodies I received last year.

Sorting Erasers. Another favorite from last year.

Tonging Porcupine Poms. I chose yellow poms because I thought they looked sort of like stars against the trees. :)

Open & Close Basket. Each container has a fun, chunky Christmas eraser in it.

Button Tree. This is the tree I made last year and even though James has the buttoning thing down pat, he's still loving this little tree.

Lacing Jingle Bells.

Spooning Sparkly Poms. As I've mentioned before, James has little interest in spooning, but I couldn't resist trying this variation with a melon baller. The idea comes from My Montessori Journey. I think he'll enjoy this.

Using A Dropper. James will transfer the green water from the glass by way of the dropper and then release the water in small amounts into each individual suction cup. The washcloth is provided so he can wipe up any spills. We've done this in the past and James just loves it.

Stringing Pony Beads. I saw this idea ages ago on Itty Bitty Love. The pipe cleaners (aka chenille sticks) are pushed into the holes on the top of a small shaker. Fun and simple!

Sensorial

Christmas Nesting Blocks. Sort of a pink tower minus the pink. :)

Sound Boxes. I purchased these from here, but you can easily create your own. Click here to read more about how to use the sound boxes.

Knobless Cylinders w/ Extensions.

Christmas Sensory Tub.

Christmas Playdough.

Language
Blue Series Materials. James is definitely in a sensitive period for language and I have to admit, I'm not as prepared as I'd like to be. He's just moving through everything so quickly, I can't keep up! I think he'll be finished with the blue series by the end of the month since this particular work was easy-peasy for him. The thing is, he's kind of all over the place with what he knows and I feel compelled to push through everything in the right order regardless in an effort to seal up any gaps in his knowledge. For those unfamiliar with the blue series, you can read more about it here. The materials were purchased through Montessori For Everyone (love her materials!).

Christmas Memory Game. To make these I printed duplicates of two different bingo cards from abcteach.

Various Tracing Pages. Some of these came from KidsSoup and others from the wonderful Nativity Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1. The Santa pencil provides an added point of interest.

Poetry Basket.

Books. Throughout the month we'll be reading a new Christmas book each day, thanks to our 25 Books of Christmas.

Math
Christmas Tree Lights Game. James loves adding and subtracting and he really enjoyed using these little bulbs as well as the jumbo dice. The bulbs are real and were cut from a strand of lights that was no longer working.

Measuring Ribbon. James selected this shiny silver ribbon and I cut several pieces in varying lengths. James will measure them against the ruler and then we'll record our findings.

Math Sheet. This is a page from the 1+1+1=1 Nativity Pack.

Hundreds Board. We just received this and used it for the first time today. James L-O-V-E-D it!

It took him a long time to complete it (and he did get a bit distracted toward the middle, complaining with a sigh that this was hard work and that his back hurt! LOL), but he finished it entirely by himself and was oh so proud!

Cards & Counters. I made these cards myself and chose red buttons (think berries :D) for the counters.

Culture & Science
North America Continent Bag. I decided to pull out various pieces from the bag and place them on trays instead of just plopping the entire bag on the shelf. I think this will work better for us because it'll allow us to focus on just a few of the items at a time.

Poinsettia Three Part Cards. I found these beautiful cards on abcteach and I purchased a real Poinsettia plant so James could have a living visual guide as well.

Discovery Tray.

Living & Non-Living Cards. My three part card envelopes didn't work for these cards, so I stitched up a little pouch out of felt. Very easy to make and I find the appearance to be much nicer than plastic.

Art & Music
Composer of the month. This month we're focusing on Tchaikovsky. I timed this to coincide with his well known Nutcracker Suite which, I feel, so beautifully represents this time of year.

We're also singing LOTS of fun Christmas songs, a compilation of which can be found here.

Stamping. I found this little kit at the dollar store.

Build A Santa & Christmas Tree. These are our "Felt Friends" from last year. Instead of separating the two as I did last year, I put all the pieces together for an added challenge.

Scissor Practice. Like last month, I cut strips of paper and then placed Christmas stickers on them which James will use as a guide to cut in between.

Color By Letter. This page is from KidsSoup.

I have quite a few other Christmas-y crafts in mind for us to do and I'll try to post about as we complete them. Just not enough hours in the day!

Click here, here and here to see some of the activities we did last year when James was 2.5 years old.

I'm linking this post up to The Preschool Corner and Montessori Monday.

~Thank you for your comments!~

December Sensory Tub & Playdough - Christmas

James has been talking about Christmas trees ever since we put ours up last week and so I thought it'd be fun to make this month's tub and playdough a "Christmas Tree" theme.

Here's what's inside:
:: Green rice (colored with food coloring to simulate pine needles)
:: Yellow star pasta (borrowed from our yellow sensory tub)
:: Plastic lights
:: Wooden stars
:: Small ornaments
:: Red and blue beads
:: Green sparkly puffs
:: Small wooden discs (to represent the tree trunk :D)
:: A wrapped gift with a bell inside
:: Plastic birds
:: Wooden scoop
:: Blue glass cup
:: Tree shaped box
:: Two tiny gold bells

I put jingle bells in last year's Christmas tub, but I decided against it this time around as I found the rice collected inside of the bells making them nearly soundless.

James and I had a blast decorating this playdough tree while listening to some Christmas music...
James shouted, "Oh, Boy!" (his new go-to phrase) when we finished making it. :) I added some peppermint extract and glitter to the dough for even more sensory fun. For the decorations, I gathered a collection of beads, buttons, sequins, gems, little birds and bits of chenille sticks and put them in a bowl. I put out a selection of Christmas themed cookie cutters, too.

~Thank you for your comments!~

Life School

We've been taking it really easy on the Tot School front while we enjoy the holidays with family and friends. Because of this, James has been experiencing loads of Life School. Here's a quick peek...

Paul's brother, Dan, and his girlfriend, Huimin, are visiting us until Wednesday. James loves having them around. Huimin is really smart (like a Ph.D. in Physics & author of 5 books kind of smart), she's very down to earth, super sweet and really easy to talk to. She's been sharing lots of her Chinese heritage with us by making yummy dinners, bringing gifts from China and by sharing lots of ancient secrets (can't wait to try them!). It's been SUCH a treat spending time with her.

James has been learning Chinese for a while now and Huimin was delighted when James counted to 10 in Mandarin. She has been teaching him a few new words every day. She's also teaching us how to write our names in Chinese (as pictured above - first my name, then James').

We had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you did, too!
It's not likely I'll get around to posting anymore this year :) so I'm wishing a Happy New Year in advance to all of you!!

Merry Christmas!!

Tot School

~James is 2 1/2 (33 months)~

Art & Music:
We did a-ha-lot of arts and crafts this week (click here to see that post). Oh happy are the days when James feels like crafting, which happened to be nearly every day this week!

James has been singing and singing and it's just so darn cute to hear Frosty the Snowman sung in a tiny voice, isn't it?! We used our instruments to make up a band and we rocked out to Jingle Bells. :)

Numbers & Letters:
Earlier in the week I created a bunch of holiday math activities (click here to see that post), which James really, really enjoyed.

One day I found James doing this...
arranging the numbers from his large playmat in numerical order. (It's kind of hard to see unless you click the photo to enlarge.)

These alphabet cards are one of my favorite school tools we have. I can't recall where I bought them, but you can buy them here. They are so beautiful and really well made. I like that there are unusual animals in the deck (narwhal, vicuna, impala) to enhance vocabulary. James took it upon himself to spell out the names of the animals! Here's a quick video clip:


Science & Nature:
James used some 3D glasses to look at pictures of Mars & the moon. He thought this was pretty cool and kept reaching out to touch the pictures. :)

I took a cue from my fellow Bermuda Tot School mama, Island Mama's Adventures, and had a lesson on trees with James. We went to the Botanical Gardens and walked around touching and exploring the different trees. To be honest, I was surprised this activity held James' attention as well as it did. Here he is examining the bark on a tree.

Practical Life:
Spooning sparkly pom-poms. I *love* putting together PL activities!! Especially seasonal ones. Thanks to the cute muffin tin this work was a huge hit with James.

Hooray! The days of potty learning seem to be upon us! James is finally showing signs of interest. I set up a little corner in his bathroom where he has his potty, a few special potty books, and a fresh pair of big boy underwear (for incentive). Come January we'll really move forward with potty learning. I would love to hear any tips and bits of wisdom you have to offer!

Other activities:
I purchased these awesome Christmas nesting blocks and nativity scene from here. Aside from the fact that baby Jesus looks a bit old for his age, I really like both items. James does too and carries the baby Jesus around the house. :)

Sorting erasers. I had two sets of holiday erasers, so James did two variations of this work. Sorting is always a favorite of his.

Sorting mini bows by color. This turned out to be WAY too easy for James, and he decided to count the bows instead, but I thought some of you with younger kids might like to do it.

James spent quite some time one afternoon playing with these "felt friends" I made (click here to see that post).

We are getting prepared for guests coming to stay with us next week. I won't be posting any Tot School stuff until after the New Year. In fact, I'll be posting very little over the next two weeks as I enjoy this beautiful holiday with friends and family. But, come 2010, we'll be ready and raring to go with all sorts of Tot School fun so stay tuned!!

Click the button to the left to see what others are doing with their children.