Christmas in third grade

Here are some things from the last few days of class.    We spent a lot of time working on the Christmas Program, various kids were in and out at different times, kids with solos, kids with speaking parts, select choir, etc.  So there was time for some other fun things. 

We wrote Christmas cards for soldiers.  My neighbor's son is stationed somewhere warm and sandy and requested Christmas cookies.  My neighbor took care of the cookies, my third graders took care of the cards.

The 24 of us collected 27 Operation Christmas boxes.  The whole school collected like 670 ish.  That's a lot of little ones with special boxes of goodies over the next few months.  Several members of our staff were privileged enough to be part of the passing out of boxes last summer in Uganda.  

 
Our Christmas party was tons of fun.  The kids iced ice-cream cones and decorated as Christmas trees.

 
For the snack, they had an ice-cream bar.

The parent presents turned out great.  I went to Menards and had them cut some pieces of 5.25 wide wood into roughly 5 inch tall pieces.

 
The kids sanded them down.

They painted the fronts white, added a vinyl sticker I cut out on my silhouette, then painted the whole thing grey.  The white and grey paint both needed two coats.  It literally took all week. The kids didn't know, but I gave the second coats afterschool when they were gone.

The kids peeled off the stickers and I snuck them home for some touchups. 

I don't know if they noticed or not.   I sure did.  The vinyl shaped was a 'weld' of three that I purchased through the silhouette online store.  I think I have about $23 dollars in this project and we made 26 blocks.  We could have gotten another 6 or so more out of the supplies left.  I could have saved money by using paint on hand and scrap wood from the garage, but didn't.

These did get painted on the backs too, this is mid-process.  We gave them a quick clear coat and wrapped them up for their mama's and daddies.

I had wanted them to write a bible verse on the back or something but they looked so good, I didn't want to mess them up at all.

They were adapted from last year's Christmas project.

 

Upon writing this, I have one more last morning of Christmas break.  I might be missing my littles a bit, but am pretty much loving sleeping until 7:30.  That's 2 extra hours.  I think everybody needs 2 extra hours of sleep a few days a week.

caterpillars

We hatched butterflies at preschool again this spring.  I've talked about hatching butterflies before (here, here, and here) but I wanted to share a new craft.  (Here are my plans from butterfly day.)

The kids so enjoy this activity.

 
This year we got to write about them in our preschool journals.

Here's the craft.  We painted the kid's first hand green with blue fingers for legs and stamped that a few times on a large paper.  The on the other hand, we painted the hand red and the pointer and ring finger a purplish brown color.  The eyes and nose were added later.  I think they turned our super cute.

new tooth activity

My post about my dental health activities at preschool is my most popular post.  I even see my photos every once in awhile on pinterest from people I follow who pinned it from someone else.  It's kinda cool like that.  So this year for dentist day, I used my old lessons and pretty much did the same thing.  The craft was new though so I thought I share that.

My little friends were given a colored copy of this mouth.  They could have colored the lips, but ours were already colored.  They used real toothpaste to brush the teeth.  Some were sloppy and glopped it around, others were so carefully to brush each bit.   It smelled minty fresh in the craft room!

Again, here's my previous post on dentist day.

Other Christmas- preschool style

 Here are some last minute Christmas goodies from preschool this Christmas.  I guess they'll have to save for next year.

Candy cane math.  This is one from my co-teacher.  She gave the kids each a white paper candy cane and access to bunches of red stripes.  She led them through math equations, helping them solve both addition and subtraction.    "Add four red stripes, good, now add two more...  how many stripes are there now?" 

 
Here are the pretzle wreath treats that Bee passed out to her classmates.  There are just 13 of them in her class, it wasn't a big commitment.  We used this recipe from a few years ago.  2009 actually.  No wonder Bee and Lou didn't remember them.  That's not technically preschool.

 The preschool kids made these lovely ornaments this season.  We used this recipe that we made last year.   I made up the dough and sealed it in ziplocks.  One doubled recipe made enough for 18 prek kids and 15 3-year old and few extra for my kids.  Each child made one ornament.  I baked them at home and the kids painted them with regular watercolor paint the next day.  To help prevent cracking, which I had so much of last year, I baked them at a really low temp for longer, my oven goes down to 170 degrees.  You need to dry them really, not bake them. 

I shared these Nativity pieces/blocks recently.  They were a nice addition to our morning table activities.

I think these stickers are from Oriental Trading.  We've used them at preschool the past few years to have an easy no mess craft on party day.   The kids used them to make cards.

We did have a little bit messy craft for party day, it was saved from a different day and it just worked out to do it during our party.  

The stars are tongue depressors.  The stars were already glued together and the kids just glued buttons to the front.  The white glue the kiddos used was the only mess.

We sang this cute song one day Christmas week.  It's to the tune of Bingo.  After each line you sing, "J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S, and Jesus is his name."   Bingo style. 

Here's another game we played.  The kids were handed cards with these letters, all the letters we've worked on until now.  There is a paper candy cane/J behind the cards.  There are lines drawn on it to show where the cards go, but there are no letters.  The kids had to pay attention and follow along with getting the cards up and in order. They are getting good at recognizing the letters.  Mostly. 

Here's a craft from early in the week.  The kids put their brown handprint on the page and added the pre-assembled baby Jesus in the manger.  We (or someone, not me) turned the handprint into a camel when it was dry.   I like the words around the edge, "I am the camel who followed the star with three wise kings from a land afar."

 On party day, we played this bingo game, which really isn't bingo, but it tells the Christmas story in order.  The clipart is from Prepared Not Scared.  I made up the bingo cards (all the same) using a table in word doc. and made a larger set for me to show the kids and I told the story. I liked it because it offered another way for me to tell the Christmas story.  Again.

We also played a bow toss game with a sheet as a parachute. I apparently have no photo of this, but we just had about 40 regular present bows on a bed sheet.

We read through the kids' Christmas story books .  The parents watched as the kids flipped through each page (and glitter and sequins flew everywhere).  These were sent home as well.  I wanted the kids to be able to have a chance to 'read' the book to family and friends at home. 

and then went to play some games in the hallway.  

First, we played a game where two kids at a time shoveled ping pong balls and carried them on their snow shovels to another bucket. 

The kids wore scarves while they did it.  Snow is cold.  Two players went at once. 

There was a 'bow in the box' toss.

Something was tossed at this little foam core tree.  It's been like a week and already I can't remember.  I used to have a really great memory.

Wooden balls were 'bowled" at these fancied up 2 liter bottles.

The stars were walked on in a 'cake walk' fashion. 

Here's what our tables looked like.  They always look so sweet on party days.

Here was our gift to the kids.  The whole school is the same, the teachers don't have to worry about that at all, which is nice.

They are sweet little J for Jesus candy cane ornaments.

I hope that is all the Christmas preschool related things I wanted to get posted. I still have many photos to go through.  I am showing my kids the James and the Giant Peach movie, so I have an hour and a half to get as much done as I can! Ready, set, go.

The Christmas Book- finished

Our little precious (oh so sweet) Christmas Story books are done. 

Here are the pages, a few I've already shared, so there are links to more examples of the kiddos artwork of that page.   Like I've mentioned before, this is a shortened version of the full length book I made with my own kids two years ago now. 

We chose to give the kids some direction with their artwork by providing papers and pieces to make particular illustrations.  This could be done totally with the kids own artwork.  Some classrooms at our school did choose to do that.  When we started working, I was glad we chose this plan.  A few kids asked when they could draw Santa and their elf on the shelf. This isn't that kind of Christmas Story.

Cover:

Page 1:  the angel

The angel came to Mary and told her she was going to have a baby.  He would be God's son and they were to name him Jesus. 

Page 2:  Mary on the donkey

Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem.  They traveled on a donkey. 

Page 3: Baby Jesus

It was time for the baby to be born but there was no room in the inn.  Jesus was born in the stable with the animals. Mary wrapped him in clothes and laid him in the manger.  

Page 4:  the star

The angels came to a group of shepherds and told them to go visit the baby.  They followed the star and found baby Jesus.  They worshiped him. 

Page 5:   Wisemen gifts

The three kings went and worshiped Jesus.  They followed the star to Bethlehem.  They brought Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

Page 6:  Tree or something 'modern' and Christmasy 

Jesus is God's son and we celebrate his birthday on Christmas.  

We bound them with binder rings and then I had the children help me read through the book at out class Christmas party.  The parents were there watching.  That gave us another chance to share the story with the kids, let us share the story in front of the parents, and we sent home a special item that would be treasured and read again and again.  It is our true hope and prayer that this little book would allow someone little bitty in our class to share the Good news of the Savior's birth.