sensory table, Christmas style

My sensory table has been hit and miss with my students this year.  With past groups of kids it's been a hot spot, needing a timer and refereeing for turn taking.  But this year is different... same activities, different kids... hmmm...

FINALLY, my Christmas mix was a hit (and I didn't have much faith in it when I put it together)!

Ingredients:

• Wrapping paper (cut into smallish pieces)
• Garland (also cut into smaller strips)
• Bows and ribbon
• $ store bauble ornaments (plastic so they won't break easy - I'd say they're unbreakable, but with preschoolers you never know...)
• Plastic candy canes (also found at the $ store and I need more!) 
• Bell ornaments

What I observed:
Lots of sorting, hiding, finding, crumpling, AND...

Bell Banging, using the plastic candy canes for percussion (accompanied by beautiful singing)

Gift Wrapping

Ornament Creating
(using the candy canes as hangers)

Tracing???... someone took the candy canes on a field trip to our art table for some tracing time - great idea!

So glad that this mix worked for my students.  Now to come up with some new ideas for next week...

simple personalized ornament

In the past I've been much more elaborate with a craft for the kiddos to make their parents as a keepsake.  This year I had a very hard time feeling inspired or finding the time for the students to put their gifts together.  After combing the web for ideas, I settled on a simple paper craft for the students to make.  I am actually pleased by the results, but am hoping I'll find more time next year to actually wrap our gifts and be able to give them out to families at our program.

Our ornaments:  (Inspired by toddlerapproved.blogspot.com)

#1: We had fun finger painting with red and green paint.  The dried paintings were multi-tasking art projects; from the large paper I cut out 2 stars (one for our school's bulletin board, and one to take home)  and a small 3"x3" square for our ornament.

 

#2: I cut out 4"x4" squares of red poster board for the backing.  The slightly larger square also created a border for the painted square.  I wrote each student's name and date on the back of the square with a metallic marker.

#3: The students glued the 2 squares together and added two pieces of ribbon, criss-crossed to looked like a wrapped present.

#4: When the "presents" were dry I added a student picture to the middle.

#5: I hole punched the top and put a piece of pipe cleaner through the hole.  I fashioned half of the pipe cleaner into a bow for the top of the present and the other half into a loop for hanging.

#6: We gave them away to smiling families!

Merry Christmas!

Ii...eye...aye...Ii

We had some inchworm fun to help learn about letter "Ii".  Thanks to Deborah from Teach Preschool I had some activities at my fingertips - great for a busy time of year : )

Big "I" with Inchworms - Hiding in the Grass (Inspiration here) :  We glued small green rectangles on our capital "I's".  We tried to glue the worms bending, but most of my students liked the ease of gluing them flat.  

After we were done with the glue, we painted grass for the worms to hide in, using the tines of a fork.

Find the Inchworms! (Inspiration here):  I can't believe I've never thought of using pipe cleaner and magnets together - great combo!  For this center, I put some grass (green and brown gift bag filler, found a the dollar store) in a container.  I added some inchworms (green pipe cleaner) and magnetic wands. 

My kiddos LOVED this activity.  I'm going to bring it back in a few weeks and add some magnetic alphabet letters to the mix for some review fun. 

Other activities in our classroom:

Nativity Building Center:  I've had a plastic Nativity set mixed with our blocks for the last four weeks and it's still a popular spot to play.  Every once in a while baby Jesus disappears (he's a hot item!) but he is eventually retrieved to place in whatever version of a stable is being constructed. 

Christmas Card Art:  I had a huge bag of Christmas card fronts donated to our school.  I put the cards, construction paper, scissors, glue and markers out at our art table for the kiddos to be creative with.  My smallest students are just getting comfortable with using scissors and glue so it was great practice for them. I love seeing their creativity start to blossom when the use of art tools becomes more familiar.