Christmas table activites- preschool style

Here are some random table activities that have made their way out the past two weeks.  Also, I've got a bunch of Christmas ideas from the past four years or so and they are easier to find now.  I have a Christmas tag as well as a J tag (for Jesus).  Those are over on the right side (web version only), down the page a little way.

The DIY light box got some new items on it.  I drew some Christmas trees on some overhead film my sister passed on to me.  We used the plastic dot pieces (formerly used as bingo pieces) to give the trees ornaments.

These baking tins are from My grandma.  She knew I'd use them.  I have green and red glass beads in the basket.  The tweezers are from the 'ants in my pants' game. 

These stars are those plasticy ice cubes.  They are from a red, white, and blue set, but I just pulled the red and white. The tongs are kitchen tongs purchased at goodwill for a quarter or less. I think the icecube trays were from there or a garage sale.

Our little people nativity set found a spot on the table.  I feel like there is a missing piece, but am not sure.  I think the shepherd is playing the part of Joseph. He must have skipped town.  The kids haven't said anything.

The Christmas sensory box has been a favorite.  

This one has an eye spy sheet with it and the kids seem to enjoy that.

This wasn't technically a table activity, but we tried the toothpick 'poking' with the younger kids and most thought it was fun.  It's one of those activities where some classes love it and others are like, 'I don't get it, why are we doing this?'  There are always a few kids that love it and can't get enough of it though.

With the pre-k kids, we usually do letters, but I went with a picture for the younger ones.  It helps get them in the correct pencil hold position as well as works on fine motor practice.  It quiets them nicely and keeps them in one spot, which is usually a plus. 

For this page, they liked looking at the back to see the poking design.  That doesn't work as well for letters because they're backwards.  We even had some team work action going on. 

This is a circle time activity turned table toy.  One day during circle time, I placed a cookie cutter in a stocking and had a kiddo feel it.  They made a guess which shape might be inside, then pulled it out.  They found the right spot for the cutter on our poster and the next friend got to have a turn with a new cutter placed inside the stocking.  Now it's out just as a matching activity.

I just made these letter cards up this weekend.  They'll only get one week to be out this year. The letters are from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Hers are big enough to glue on a bottlecap.  These were printed out with two pages on a printed sheet, so they came out smaller, just the right size for my clear glass beads.  I modge-podged them on the flat side.  The pictures are from Prepared, Not Scared and the cards are from Moms Have Questions Too.

This felt tree came out on candy cane day and has been out all week.  The kids can just decorate as they choose. 

Last year after Christmas, I got boxes of cards for 10 cents.  I bought all they had!  They've been out for the kids to make Christmas cards for family and friends. They are really enjoying it.   I have to keep an eye on one friend; she grabs a marker and draws waves on as many cards as she can find.  One day she went through at least half a box of 36 cards.  Good thing the cards were cheap!

I have many other Christmas things to get up here, but I've have about 27 projects going on, with little sign of slowing down.  I can't even share most of the projects yet, as many are gifts.  Hopefully I'll get time over break to get caught up.  We'll see. 

Again, here are some other preschool Christmas ideas from my blog last year..     And some others Here   

random preschool

Here are several random preschool related items.  

I'm just so in love with this journal entry.  I think this is why I go to school a lot of days. 

Next item.  I found this 9 piece puzzle at a garage sale and it's been perfect for a behavior plan for one of our little friends.  He earns pieces for good behavior and when all 9 are earned, he earns a prize at home.  Some days are five piece days, others not so much.

The 'vet' stuff is at school this week.  The kids are loving it! Last month we had the mail center out.  

The fixed light board has lasted so far.  Beats the old record of one day.

We set out the jars and glass beads for the sensory box.  It was loud.  They filled and dumped and refilled those jars.  loudly. 

The kiddos collected can goods in November.  Our room collected 198!  One of the preschool grandma's happens to be the leader from the group we collected for.  The kids helped her load up the van.

Oh my goodness, our friends are loving the Pete the Cat books. Those books get read and read and read.  They can read it themselves now.  I come a lot of days for that too.

D journal page

D week wasn't anything new (dinosaurs), but here's the D journal page. 

______'s dog is __________.  I had intended to make it dinosaurs, but couldn't find any dinosaur stickers.

Some kids had me write what their dog was doing,

others described their dog or named it.

In other news, the lightbox is back.  it was sadly broken a week after school started.  I might have shed a tear.  A little friend in the class after mine shattered it.  Thankfully she wasn't hurt.  I had Lou sit on it to test it out and nothing happened.  She must have leaned in just the right spot.  I will be keeping it in the cabinet when our class is over!

nature cards -revised

We had to re-do the nature frames.  We made them last time with contact paper and several got mushy.  We gathered new items, pressed them for a week or two between paper towels and book, then laminated them with my thicker lamination.

This locust wing is pretty cool.

I found this yellow feather under the clothesline. 

These flowers are from a little bush in the backyard. 

The dandelion turned out great. 

They were fun in our kitchen window, but from the backyard looking in, they looked like that plastic winter covering some people put on their windows.   Hubby requested I take them down.

Then we tried them on the light box and really liked them.  

Even the regular leaves turned out super cool.  This method took a little more time to allow for pressing and drying, but has been worth the short wait.  Bee would like us to keep an eye out for some butterfly wings.  Those would be pretty too.

DIY Lightboard

We made our own lightboard!  It wasn't that hard and comes in at about $30 if you have to buy the wood.  Often we have scrap, but not enough this time.   I looked at several DIY light boards, or light tables, but sort of combined ideas and made it up as I went. Something that works, sometimes not so much.

Here's what you need:  (My lightboard is 18x24)

wood to make the frame-  I bought a 10 foot 1x6 board.  I bought pine and it was $5.50ish

wood for the bottom- luckily I had scrap- it's thin, lightweight wood

plexiglass- I bought mine already cut 24x18 (that's what determined my lightboard size).  It was $9.75 ish

lightsource-  I've seen people use those rope lights and push button lights. I wanted lots of light.  I went with a $9.90ish under the counter light.  It has a cord. It was the biggest and brightest I could get within budget.  

Screws and nails

I decided to have my plexiglass fit down in the frame so there was a little lip around the edge.  I bought a bag of those shelf holders, like that come with bookshelves you put together yourself.  The bag of 12 was $1.80ish. I used 10. I also saw you could purchase them individually for 49 cents each, which would have been silly.  

something reflective- I've seen people use silver spray paint or foil, but I went with a mylar emergency blanket. I used just a corner and have more left for other projects.  Oddly enough, this is the second project where I've used this product.  This was $2.25 ish in the camping department. 

Also, not pictured:  clear packing tape, wax paper, and colored tape

Tools needed were a drill, screw driver, saw, hammer, little snips (not the appropriate tool but it worked) 

 Now, I've seen a lot of lightboards made out of plastic tubs, but I wanted something bigger and sturdier, for 3 or 4 little ones to work at, at one time.  I went with wood.  It's sturdy but not too heavy.  I drilled some small pilot holes and then screwed the box together.

I marked a line 1/2 inch from the top edge and drilled holes for the shelf holder things.  That's their official name. I needed a bigger drill bit for that one.  I just tried until I got the right size.

The little shelf holders are where I ran into trouble.  I didn't account for the extra room they took up.  The plexiglass fit on one side, but not the other.  I was off by 1/8 an inch or so. 

I decided to think about it and keep on going.  I traced the size I needed for the bottom and cut it out and nailed it on. I ended up using a pair of siding snips to chip away at the plexiglass until it was 1/8 inch smaller on both the length and width.  It was messy and left sharp pieces of hard plastic for out feet to find later. 

I hot glued the mylar blanket in the box. I also used some clear packing tape to help attach at the edges.

Here's where I went to work by the pool while the kids were swimming.  There are no pictures of these steps:

-I taped wax paper to the back side of the plexiglass (I used 1 piece of clear packing tape to connect the two pieces it took to cover it. 

-I taped a border of colored tape around the edge of the plexiglass.  This was to take care of any sharp or jagged edges and also to help hold on the wax paper.

A large hole was needed for the cord to poke through.  It was the first time I used the drill bits that does holes that big.

I positioned the light in the center and placed the plexiglass on top of the little shelf holders.  It was ready to play!  I found these colored stones in the fish tank accessories section of our big box store. The clear dishes are from Joanns in the jewelry making area.

We added the water beads and were very glad to have that little wooden lip. These beads are from Joanns, in the floral department.  We've also purchased them from the dollar tree before.

I finished this at night after the kids were in bed, but I heard Bee still up in her room so I went and got her.  I let her play a few minutes.

We got out the glass beads and clear bingo chips.

Then Bee asked to go get her new rocks.  Some of them were pretty neat with the light. They were clear enough to let some light through.  She got these from Holiday World.  They had a bin and you got the fill up certain sized bags for different prices.

Then I sent her back to bed and had to clean up.   Lou can see it in the morning. Good thing we get to play with it all summer before I have to share with the kiddos at preschool.  My kids get jealous occasionally!