What a busy holiday season we've had! In our family, the kids open an advent calendar door each day in December, leading up to Christmas. Inside is a note telling them what activity we would do together that day. Some examples are: decorate a gingerbread house, choose a Christmas tree, go on a candy cane hunt, have a family game night, etc. So we did a lot of activities for Christmas!
But today I'm going to share a few additional things that were just for Sweet E's tot school theme. Keep scrolling to see those, or click on the links below to take a look back at Honey Pot and Little M&M's themes from previous years!
Books
We've accumulated a large collection of Christmas books over the years. But here are our favorite toddler-friendly ones! "Follow Me Santa" and "Don't Push the Button" are really interactive and fun!
Christmas Tree Craft
Honey Pot and Little M&M made Christmas cards for their teachers, so I offered Sweet E a similar craft. I cut out a tree, then allowed her to decorate it with lots of little gems! She loves these!
And then she glued a paper star onto the top!
Here are everyone's finished creations!
MagnaTiles + Jingle Bells Exploration
This was one of the first tot school activities Sweet E ever did, during last year's theme. I am so glad we did it again, because she had so much fun!
She used up all the bells and then took them off and did it again!
Look at that terrific fine motor work!
Faux Snow - Small World and Sensory Bin
This is always a favorite activity, and actually I think Honey Pot played with it more than anyone! I just make up some faux snow and add our sweet Fisher Price Little People set.
So happy to discover this setup!
She loved making it snow!
And scooping it up!
💚
Candy Cane Beading + Patterns
Last time I introduced the idea of patterns, it didn't quite catch on. This time she did wonderfully! We just ABAB for now.
She loved sliding the beads onto the pipe cleaner!
She worked hard on this!
I had intended on twisting the finished product into a candy cane like so...
but Sweet E insisted it was her bracelet! So that is what it became! And later, when Little M&M came home to play with her, he made one as well. They were very creative, and decided to add a couple jingle bells to them in addition to the beads!
Christmas Playdough
While we were doing some last minute shopping, Sweet E saw a package of playdough containing 10 different colors and asked for it. It was just $5 so I grabbed it for her. She was so happy! We pulled out some cutters and tools, as well as our Christmas mat.
She cut out candy canes...
decorated our tree with ornaments, made gingerbread men and women...
rolled out snakes and practiced cutting...
and even made a yummy cupcake!
We made as many gingerbread people as we could!! She then tried lifting them up and making them talk to one another!
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