A Toddler Christmas!

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!

Christmas Theme Toddler - 2018

Christmas Quiet Bins - 2015

Christmas Crafts and Activities - 2014

Christmas Advent Calendar Part 1 - 2013

Christmas Advent Calendar Part 2 - 2013

The Grinch - 2013

Christmas Trees - 2013

Frosty the Snowman - 2013

Christmas Trees - 2012

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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Beach Activities!

Our family is heading to the Outer Banks for a week! To prepare for our vacation, we did some beach activities. Click on the links below to revisit similar themes, or keep scrolling to see what we did this week!

Beach Theme (+ Introduction to Quiet Bins) 2015

The Ocean 2014

Beach Theme 2013

Beach Theme 2012

Books

We borrowed several books about the beach this week, but Sweet E had a definite favorite. I think we read each of them a couple times, but we read "At the Beach" over and over and over. It's a good one!

Countdown

We always create a fun countdown about twenty days before we leave. This year we did something new! Sweet E helped to color the sand pail, and the big kids helped to cut out the seashell numbers. Each morning, we placed one seashell into the bucket! I had created a pocket there by cutting the hole out of the sand pail, and taping another sheet of paper behind it. The kids loved this!

Mega Bloks Puzzles

I printed some cute puzzles from ABCs to ACTs with beach pictures on them, and taped the puzzles onto our Mega Bloks. I remember we did something similar during Little M&M's C is for Car week, as well as our 2014 Valentine's Day theme. It was a hit then too! Such a clever idea.

Sweet E loved putting these puzzles together!

She asked to do it again right away, and even had her stuffed Tiger join her!

Color-Matching - Beach Balls

I created these colorful beach balls in Photoshop Elements, and printed two copies. Then I cut out one copy, and asked Sweet E to match them up!

We talked about the names of the colors, and she matched them with no trouble.

When she finished she asked, "One more time?"

Of course, she had to hop up onto the couch and reach over to finish it this time.

And we actually did it three times in a row!

Beach - Small World

We have done several small world bins in our many years of Tot School. Fake snow with Santa and reindeer toys, construction trucks with an assortment of dirt and rocks, dinosaurs in sand, frogs on lily pads in the water, etc. But my top two would definitely be The Arctic bin from 2016 and this one! I happened to have a sheet of scrapbooking paper that looked like ocean waves. Combined with our kinetic sand, a few seashells, scraps of felt for towels, and some Playmobil toys from my own childhood, we had a pretty great setup!

Sweet E was so excited to dig in! 

We each took a character to play with, and they had all sorts of adventures! Things that we would do on our vacation, which we also read about in our beach books!

  

They made sand castles!

And buried one another in the sand!

The went swimming in the ocean!

Made footprints in the sand!

The fun went on and on. We later took out kinetic sand molds and made some crabs. Here is Sweet E getting in some counting practice!

And then playing some more!

I reset the bin, so that Honey Pot and Little M&M could have some fun with it after school. They loved it too!

Exploring Seashells - Fine Motor

This was a simple activity I did with Little M&M when he was one. But Sweet E also enjoyed it at two! She pushed all of the seashells into the empty wipes container, emptied it out, and started again!

Exploring Seashells - Playdough

And this part was Sweet E's idea actually. She wanted to play with the seashells in playdough! So I set her up with the playdough, our shells, and some tools. And I let her play while I was nearby in the kitchen.

She loved pushing them into the playdough, and making prints!

Hand Print Crab

We did this during a previous beach unit as well and it was super cute. I found a sheet of beach paper in my old scrapbooking stash, painted Sweet E's hands, and pressed them onto the paper. We used peach paint, because on our beach vacations we see a lot of sand crabs, and they blend in with the sand! When the paint dried, Sweet E helped to glue on two eyes.

And she squirt glue onto the paper for clouds!

We used some cotton balls. And she also glued on one small shell.

Here is the final product, and it is adorable!

She was so proud of her work!

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