Christmas Crafts for Preschool - Ornaments and Instant Christmas Trees

Glad to be back and offering more ideas for Christmas crafts for preschool.
Sorry for the time away-the flu was much more than I could have imagined!

Good to be back and having fun during this special time of year. I have received so many wonderful ideas from my readers and want to share a couple of them.

I chose these because they are ideas that even your youngest preschoolers, even toddlers, can do! Give them a try and let me know how they work out.


Ornaments
Need---clear plastic 16 oz cups, permanent markers, and for the adults who help, an oven set at 400.

Take a clear plastic cup and have children color the cup with permanent markers.
Place the cups in an oven (400 degrees), and watch the cups melt. Once they are flat, the cups can be removed.

These make a great Christmas ornament; make a hole in top for hook.

**Really nice if oven is accessible with students, so children can watch the process of the cups melting.


Easy Christmas Trees

Need--Sugar cone ice cream cones, vanilla or green frosting, multi colored rice crisp cereal.

We do a really cute craft at Christmas with my prechool class. The students make a Christmas tree using sugar cones, vanilla frosting and colored crisp cereal.

Cover the cone completely with the frosting and simply roll the cone in a pie plate full of the colored crisp cereal. Let it set for a few minutes and you haev an instant Christmas tree!!! Set aside an area on a table and
create a holiday scene.


If you like these Christmas crafts for preschool, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html


Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Holiday Crafts - Snowmen Votives

I have been flooded with requests for ideas for preschool holiday crafts! I will give ideas to you over then next few postings to help with this.

Crafts provide your preschoolers with so many learning opportunities. I like to personalize a craft as much as possible and use something unique to the individual.

Here is a "green" idea for a gift for mommy or daddy.


Snowmen Votive Candle Holder

Ask parents to send in their empty baby food jars. You are using recycled materials to make a gift with a personal imprint on it!

This activity is easiest to do when you have a helper, parent volunteer, etc. It also requires starting a couple of weeks depending on the size of your class.

Paint 3 fingers of each preschool child,individually, in white. (I would set this up as a center with your aide there.)
Gently press each finger on the glass and quickly pull away. The prints should be one on top of the other to resemble a snowman.

Do this with each child over the next several days.

Then make a sample one and use a permanent marker to add eyes, orange stick nose and black dots for his smile. Show this to your preschoolers and then let each child decorate their snowman. I use aides and volunteers with this part and have them do this in pairs with the aide.

Spray with an acrylic fixative.

The children now have a snowmen votive candle holder for their parents for any holiday.

You can use this poem on a gift card attached to the holder:

"These are snowmen, happy and glee,
However, they are really my fingerprints three!"

These are wonderful personalized preschool holiday crafts that your preschoolers will love making and giving.

If you like this preschool holiday craft, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html


Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Toddler Preschool Lessons - Going on a Bear Hunt

A lot of preschool lessons are geared for three year olds and older. Here are ideas for toddler preschool lessons that were sent to me recently by one of my readers.

I definitely agree that toddler lessons should be physical and exploratory.
Two year olds need to move around, feel, experience and be part of the lesson to learn as much as possible.

Try this variation to do the traditional "Going on a Bear Hunt" with your two year olds and have fun!

Toddler Going on a Bear Hunt--

I like to do physical stuff with my two year olds. We set up for going on a bear hunt. we take blankets and bucther paper making caves, and tunnels, on tables and chairs. cover them.

We use different colors to stress the color that we are working on like we are going thru the blue cave. We turn out the lights and have flash lights. We put out all kinds of stuff animals and plastic animals like tigers, bears, lions and so on. We climb over and under the children love it (great way to teach directions such as OVER and UNDER).

Allow them to help set up and clean up. Make your Snacks or treats like a camp fire, sing songs and just have a grand time.

If you like these toddler preschool lessons, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html


Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html