Tot School

I helped C make a hand and foot print angel that we later put on top of our tree

 Matching bows to the gift

 We played with flat marbles that I put alphabet stickers on. She liked playing with the letters. She even surprised me this week by spelling J's name out loud.

 

 She matched foam blocks to her foam letters by color.
(The 2 blocks on top are their ears and the 2 on the bottom are their feet)

 Then she gave the V cheeks :)

Matching stockings to the fireplace

 We made cone Christmas trees (got the idea from LAWTEEDAH)

 Here is some awesome fine motor skills at work! While looking for stickers to put on the cone tree, C found these in the sticker box. They were really small and on the back of the sticker sheet it says they were for fingernails. So she put stickers on her fingernails!

C & J's hand print and foot print Rudolph!

Felt Activities

I had a few minutes this morning to make 2 new felt activities for C.

Christmas shapes for her button snake
(snowman, poinsettia, stocking, tree, ornament, star, gingerbread)

 One of the activities on the advent chain was to make this Rudolph book I found at Little Giraffes a few years ago. Instead, I made a flannel board version after seeing the idea at Oopsey Daisy! I just don't have any pink felt, if I don't make it to the store I might have to use paper.

Here are the words to the Rudolph story

Rudolph! Rudolph!

What will you do?

You can't guide Santa

If your nose is blue!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

Santa gave a wink.

But what will he think

If your nose is pink?

Rudolph! Rudolph!

Your way cannot be seen

Through the wintry weather

If your nose is green!

  

Rudolph! Rudolph!

You're such a silly fellow    

Who will know it's you   

If your nose is yellow!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

How will you get back?

You can't see in the dark

If your nose is black!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

It's time to go to town.

But Santa's wearing a frown

'Cause your nose is brown!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

It's time to fly at night.

But you're quite a sight

'Cause your nose is white!

Rudolph!  Rudolph!

The children are in bed.

 And now I know you're ready

'Cause your nose is red!

Another thing I wanted to make was a button tree,
like this one at Counting Coconuts

but my felt collection is getting smaller and I don't have enough green.
It might have to wait until next year.

Oopsey Daisy also made these cute gingerbread bean bags!

Shutterfly Update

My order for our photo Christmas cards from Shutterfly arrived yesterday. And I am pleased to announce that I am very happy with how they turned out! (even if C is not looking at the camera and J isn't smiling in our family picture). 

This is the design I ended up choosing:

(not one had mentioned in the original post...and that isn't my family)

Most are addressed, all need stamps, and then they are ready for the post office! 

Tot School - 2 weeks worth

(This post contains affiliate links)

Updated 12.14 with link to Christmas puzzles and Christmas lights, see below.

Most of the things we did have been from our Advent chain. I should have one of those for every day of the year, it makes me more organized. Plus C makes sure we do our activity for the day!

 Ornament Shadow match

Christmas Tree Shapes

Winter/Christmas shape garland

Hand print Advent Wreath

Counting Presents Game

 Position Words book from 1+1+1=1

Tree and gift shape match

Hand print Santa

 Christmas Picture puzzles
click here to download for the word document or
the PDF File Download
This is my first time sharing something, please let me know if it doesn't work. I used clip art I found on google images, is it still ok to share?

Christmas lights pom pom color match
Click here to download

Christmas/Winter Garland

Earlier this fall C painted me some fall leaves which I taped onto a piece of hemp string. I loved the look of it so much that I wanted her to paint me some more for the new season!

 I originally had it in our kitchen, but kept falling. It eventually was hung on the door like the tree/angel one below.

I traced cookie cutters on some cereal boxes and cut the shapes out. C carefully painted each one (she loves painting!)

When the shapes were dry we taped them onto the string.

 I hung the angels and trees on the front door

 And the snowman and snowflakes on the backdoor. Since this one can be seen on both sides (we use our backdoor more than our front door) I painted over the colored side and C helped me added silver, blue and white glitter.

This activity focused on other skills besides painting - like colors, shapes and making patterns.
I am looking forward to making these for more seasons and holidays

Advent Chain

Here is our quick and easy Advent chain

I had C paint 4 pieces of construction paper which I cut into strips when they dried.

On each strip I wrote the date and a simple activity. Most are things we can do at home since we live in WI in the country. We never know when the weather will keep us home.  Some of the ideas I got from The Activity Mom's list, others are ideas from when I was a teacher or from ideas I have found online.

1. Make cookies with Grandma 

2. Ornament Shadow Match (I bought these ornaments at the Dollar Tree a few years ago)

3. Brown Reindeer, Brown Reindeer Book

4. Christmas Garland (I will post pictures when we make it, C made me a fall leaf garland and I loved it, so will do the same with winter and Christmas shapes)

5. Advent Wreath  but the wreath will be a handprint wreath

6. Counting Presents

7. Shop for Toys for Tots

8. Position word Tree

9. Tree and gift shape match

10. Handprint Santa

11. Santa Dice Game

12. Hand and footprint Angel

13. Bow and Gift color match

14. Christmas Tree Shapes 

15. Drive around to see lights (I plan to do this on the way to Awana, so we will be out and about anyway)

16. Fireplace and stocking ABC match

17. Hand and foot print reindeer

18. What is in the stocking game (I will put different toys in the stocking and C will feel and guess what is inside, without looking of course)

19. I can color Christmas book

20. Candy Cane pattern

21. Rudolph Rudolph Book

22. Make cookies with Mommy

23-25 - those are blank since we will be traveling for Christmas. Not exactly when or if we would get to activities :)

And here is the chain hanging up. When C saw it, she stood under it and said "I am at a party!"

(ignore the half painted doorway, we live in a "work in progress" home which hasn't been "worked" on much since we had children)

Sites with great Christmas activities

Little Giraffes

Activity Mom

Pre-K Pages

1+1+1=1 

Pre-Kinders

Shutterfly Christmas Card Promotion!

I have used Shutterfly for storing and printing photos for several years. In fact, looking back, the oldest folder in my account dates back to 2004! I have used them for printing many items, from our "Save the Dates" for our wedding, making a photo book of my trip to Washington DC a few years ago, to the precious photos of our two girls. I have always been happy with what arrives in the mailbox!

This year I plan on using Shutterfly to print our Christmas cards to send to friends and family! They have so many beautiful designs to choose from. Here are a few of my favorites. It will be a hard choice to make.

I may also order my parents a calendar featuring C and J! And later make a photo book of J's first year (and maybe one for C too!)

Now, all I have to do is get both girls to look at the camera...at the same time. Wish me luck! Go check out Shutterfly how bloggers can earn 50 free photo cards.

Disclosure: I will be receiving free photo cards from Shutterfly for this promotion. The above is my honest opinion!

What we have been doing..

I guess I haven't posted in awhile. Mostly because I just didn't take pictures of what we have been doing. That, and baby J hasn't been taking long afternoon naps lately.

I thought I would share some pictures of seasonal things I have out.

The felt turkey, the feather counting and color matching (made from paper) are leftover from my teaching days. 

(sorry about the dark pictures)

 Pumpkin toss - I made a stuffed pumpkin and C tossed it into a waste basket

 Felt board turkey

 Counting feathers

Matching feathers

This isn't Thanksgiving related, but I finally got around to making the button snake I have seen around blog land. I recently saw this post on Activity Mom using felt pieces shaped like leaves. I probably won't get around to making leaves, but I do plan on making felt trees for Christmas. 

 We made lots of hand print turkeys
(not sure why this one showed up sideways)

 Hand print candy corn

My version of the button turkey

(I am not much of a sewer, but he was pretty easy to make)

I have other ideas planned, hopefully I can get those pictures posted before Thanksgiving!