Christmas Light Sequencing

Cynthia (Nanny): 

To work on our number ordering to 15 I cut out light bulb shapes and numbered them. The girls did very well with 1-10 but needed some support with 11-15. Our focus right now is recognizing and orally counting up to 20 so this activity was a good informal way for me to know what lessons to pull next week to reinforce numbers to 20. 

Winter Snowflakes

Cynthia (Nanny): Today we read one of our favorite books, Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell. If you've never read it, you must. It touches on so many great lessons and topics like self worth, self confidence, bullying, family, and starting in a new school to name a few. 

After we read the book we made paper snowflakes like the main characters does in the book. I introduced the concept of being unique and special, just like snowflakes. 

A friend of mine named Beth reminded me about making paper snowflakes this season so thank you Beth! :) 

I needed a refresher on folding the paper but found a good one here: http://www.marthastewart.com/276331/how-to-make-paper-snowflakes/@center/1009041/christmas-crafts-projects

Afterwards, we used glitter to decorate them and hung the snowflakes on the kitchen windows

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Christmas Tree Name Puzzles

Cynthia (Nanny): 

I started by cutting out a triangle tree shape. Then I wrote each girls name on a tree vertically. Next, I cut the tree into strips w one letter on each. Then they assembled the tree to spell their name and adds star and trunk. 

This was an easy way to spell their names while keeping with our Christmas theme. 

Homemade Snow

Snow in San Antonio is rare, but not when you have 2 simple household ingredients! 

We used 1 box of baking soda (approximately 2 cups) and 1/3 cup of white hair conditioner. That's it! I made one batch for each child. 

We mixed the two ingredients together and it felt like real snow! It was cool to the touch, moldable, and a little slushy. This will for sure be a go to winter activity for us! 

Thumbprint Candy Canes

Cynthia (Nanny): 

To reinforce patterns we used thumbprints dipped in red and white paint to create a candy cane. So fun and easy! To help them keep the shape I lightly drew the cane shape on their papers to stamp over. 

Christmas Patterns

Cynthia(Nanny): 

Patterns continue to be a concept we reinforce constantly. Being able to recognize, identify, and extend a pattern are what we worked on today. 

I made 3 different patterns using a Christmas sticker book I got on sale at Michael's last weekend. The patterns all followed the ABC rule this time but I inserted missing spots within each. 

The girls didn't seem to have problems with them so I need to make them a little more challenging next time. 

When Little Sister was done, she noticed the space I left on the bottom of the page and asked to make her own. Of course, I let her! 😀

What other ideas can you share on having your kids create patterns? 

Graphing with Ornaments

Today we created a graph to sort between different colored ornaments. I created the axis and cut out the ornaments. They're pretty familiar with graphs so we reviewed the concept of sorting and gluing on accordingly. 

I started by having the girls select a pinch of ornaments from a ziplock Baggie. Usually I'd give them a set amount of ornaments but this time I wanted them to create a different graph so we could talk about the different results. 

They did pretty well with constructing the graph so I made sure to ask questions at the end to assess their learning. 

One thing we need to continue to work on is not including the category ornament into the total number of ornaments. We talked about only counting what was inside the "frame" I drew. 

-Cynthia (nanny)

I loved this idea of Cynthia's, so I decided to so my own variation.  I created a paper tree with sticker ornaments.  Then I made graphs with corresponding stickers.  I had the kids count the ornaments on the tree and use dot painters to graph how many of each ornament was in the tree.

Counting Down to Christmas

To help us keep our anticipation of Christmas in check we created a linking chain to countdown to the special day. 

As we made the chain we focused on patterning and using our small motor skills to fold and glue the links. 

To add in more math skills, I cut out numbered circles for the girls to label the links with. They were able to order numbers 1-14 but needed help with the rest through 25.