Merry Christmas

The blog will be pretty quiet for the next few weeks......my family is heading to Disney World!!!  I just want to let everyone know how grateful I am to my daycare families for being so great to me and my family.  I always feel very guilty taking time off, so I normally don't....I feel bad that parents need to find other care for their children, so I just want you to know how much it means to me and my family for being so great about us going on vacation and for so long!  My family is looking forward to some much needed time away!

The past few "preschool days" we have been working on our Christmas presents for parents, but I don't want to spoil it and show them yet......so, I will leave you with a song! 

(This was after several attempts.....I finally had to sing a little with them to get everyone to do it, so sorry you have to hear my non-singing voice!)

 

Hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!!!!

Parkside Homes

Yesterday afternoon, we were invited to Parkside Homes......we have been going there once a month and the children always look forward to it.  They told us we would get to see a pig dressed up like Santa!  When I told the children where we were going, they insisted we make something for the residents (last year they asked us to decorate place mats for them to use).  So, I quickly came up with a few Christmas crafts they could make and take to them to decorate their rooms or hallways.

We first made some simple Christmas trees.  I gave each child 5 strips of green paper cut into different lengths......they were to put in order from shortest at the top to the longest at the bottom.  Then add a brown trunk at the bottom and a yellow star on top.

We then added small beads to use as decorations for the trees.

Very simple craft.

Then we quickly painted some more pinecone trees like the ones we made here.  Hopefully the residents will enjoy them.

 

 

 This is what the children got to see at Parkside......a pot bellied pig named Willy, dressed as Santa!!!

The children got to feed him apples. 

 

 Check out the red hooves!!!

His belly almost touched the floor!

Puzzle Piece Wreaths

We started these wreaths last week and finally finished them this morning.  If you have a puzzle that is missing some pieces, this is a great way to use them up or you can purchase some dollar puzzles from the dollar store.  We started by painting them green (one side was white, so we painted over the white).....I gave each child 10 puzzle pieces to paint green.

Once they were dry, I assembled them with hot glue.

And then it was on to decorating them....I had some red beads and also some reddish, pink dyed macaroni from one of our previous crafts.....I showed them how they could put 3 red beads together to look like berries, but they were welcome to decorate however they wanted to.

Ru was gone last week when we started these, so I had made up an extra one so she was able to decorate it with us today. 

 Tie some yarn or ribbon on the wreath and hang on the treee. 

 

You could also put your child's picture in the middle and give as gifts to grandparents.

Pinecone Christmas Trees

Can you believe Christmas is just around the corner??  Well, we are already starting some Christmas crafts......yesterday we decorated pinecones to look like Christmas trees.  The children first painted them green.....we used craft paint so it wouldn't flake off.

While the paint was still wet, the children sprinkled with some glitter and then we added a star on top.


Very simple and cute craft.....you could leave setting around or add some string and hang on your Christmas tree.

 

Cornucopias

This morning we made a fun little snack.  I have done this snack or similar ones in the past, but thanks to Pinterest I found a way to tweak it a bit.

 

First you need a waffle cone for each child.  The directions on Pinterest said to boil the water and use the steam to curl the ends of the cone, but thanks to a fellow daycare provider, we were able to do this in the microwave.  Kelly did a little trial and error with hers and it seemed to work better in the microwave.  Take a wet paper towel and wrap it around the end of the cone, then microwave for 15 seconds......mine took about 30, so depending on your microwave, it may take anywhere from 15-30 seconds.  Take out quickly and curl the end (you can use a spoon or a pencil).....I will warn you, it will be a little warm, so be careful.  Hold in place until it cools off and hardens.

 

 

Then prepare a bowl of goodies for the children to spoon in their cornucopias......we did candy corn (represented corn), marshmallows (potatoes), skittles (fruit) and chocolate chips (just because everything is better with chocolate)!!!  You could also make a healthy version and do different types of cereal or even mix the two.

 

 

Have each child fill their cornucopias up.

Waiting patiently to eat! 

Mmmm......candy!!!  I didn't let them eat it all, the rest will be going home.....you're welcome, parents!!! 

Fun and simple snack that everyone loved!!!

 

You can wrap with cellophane and add a little "Happy Thanksgiving" note as well.

 

 

 

 

Clothespin Turkeys

On Tuesday we started making these colorful turkeys.  I had some old style clothespins laying around, so we used those for the body of the turkey and painted them brown.

To make the feathers, I cut a feather shape out of red, yellow, and orange construction paper.  Then the children decorated them with sequins, glitter and pom poms.

 

We then let them dry and finished putting them together today......I glued the feathers on the back of the clothespin with hot glue and then they added the eyes, beak and gobbler to the front of the clothespin.  Look closely at where some of them put their eyes!

 

Let dry and they should stand on their own (a few of them didn't).  Really simple and cute turkey craft.