Hallway Decor

Here are a couple of things we made to decorate our hallway outside of our classroom!

We made snowballs - with coffee filters and fake snow!

We love to glue stuff! :)

We put them over our cubbies!

Then we made a handprint wreath and hung it over our notice board!

Peppermint Play Dough Santa!

We made a peppermint play dough Santa - he's cute and smells good! :)

We mixed our dough and added a ton of peppermint flavouring - it smelled sooooo gooood!

I simply mixed approx. 4 cups flour to 1 cup salt - add water to the proper consistancy and toss in the colouring and peppermint! We kept half white and the other half we made red.

Then we pressed the dough into a cool tin I found at he thrift store with Santas image - it's probably for cake decorating - I'm not sure?

After a couple of days we popped it off the tin!

It looks OK but I think when it dries a little more we will paint it and put on some glitter! :)

Everything is better with glitter!

The kids loved the colour and the smell - it was a great sensory experience!

Update: We added some glitter, wiggly eyes, and some coconut in his beard!

Do they use that stuff?

There are often times when I get asked if the children actually choose to use the practical life items I place out for the children in the classroom.
Indeed they do! I think it's because they are different. They are not pre-packaged toys - they are something outside of the box. I also present the objects before independant use, so the children have an idea of how they may manipulate the objects. Not because I don't think they would come up with their own solutions - but because some kids simply need a stepping off point. Besides I think it also makes the object more important since they were presented as something special.

Here the children use the I Spy Christmas Tubes and some Christmas icecube trays with glitter pompoms & Christmas erasers. Great for fine motor practice, sorting , matching, sequencing, counting and sensory stimulation etc. The presents our magical elf 'Stanley' brought for the children to count.  The puzzle the one boy is using was very difficult, but he is a really great puzzle expert! He even stumped one of our teachers - he had to show her how it went together! LOL It's really interesting to watch the children use the objects with great interest since most people would simply look at them as just stuff without a purpose.

So - do they use that stuff? YUP!

This week I added magnets with a jar of jingle bells and pipe cleaners bent into candy canes.

 

Fun to play with!

Open ended Christmas tree creatives?

So at this time of year we do a lot of creative activities and the tots like to use gluesticks, so we made some Christmas trees!

Although this cannot really be considered open ended (in my mind) the results

were of the children's own creation.

However the set up of the activity really left no room for interpretation.

Often times we do this kind of set up for the sake of time - not always a first choice.

Parents also like to see creatives coming home where they can determine what the object is.

We simply set out the shapes - gems - glitter and glue and let the children apply their

knowledge of creativity to the materials presented.

In this activity we simply put out some triangular green shapes and red construction paper with gluesticks.

The children began to apply the glue and attach the shapes to the paper.

I was told these are Christmas tree - indeed they are!

So in both activities the end result was a 'Christmas Tree'. Can both activities be considered open ended?

Well dependent on your interpetation of open ended. There is no right or wrong result in both activities - however the set up leaves little wiggle room in the first. An open ended activity is said to be undetermined with no predetermined outcome. However there can be some flexibility and adaptability in the activity that is set out for completion. An activity that can be changed dependant on skill level, mood and duration can certainly be considered open ended.

In both activities above there was no pressure to create a Christmas tree - the kids did love the results in both instances - open ended? Yup!

I Won a Liebster Blog Award!

Now I am passing on the love!

You've won an award!

I heart my bloggy friends! (Liebster Award) 

The idea behind this one is to spotlight 5 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.

So here's my list:

http://mrsjacksonsclasswebsiteblog.blogspot.com/

http://bakersandastronauts.blogspot.com/

http://theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/

http://www.playingwithwords365.com/

http://no1hasmorefun.blogspot.com/

TAG, you're it! Have fun sharing the LOVE!

I chose these blogs because I have found many things of interest on all of them!

I was nominated by Lori @ Cachey Moma’s Classroom - thanks so much!

Elf on the Shelf for $1

OK there is no way I was going to pay $34.99 for an elf and a book! I am after all the garage sale Queen! I did have a gift certificate for the book store - but the 'Elf on the Shelf' was unavailable. Lucky for me - because on the way home I thought why not go to the thrift shop - I bet I could find an elf there I could use!
...and I did!

As I cruised the odds n' ends bags - guess what I saw?!

My heart pounded - I was so excited and $1.99 OMG what a find!

Two items in the bag = my elf is $1 - yippy!

A tad out of sorts - but nothing major that couldn't be fixed!

He even had this great little hand made needle point box!

All fixed up - what a gem!

With a little internet exploring I can put together the story well enough to share our very own Christmas Elf with the tots in my classroom! I even found a multitude of other resources to make this a really fun adventure!

Here are some links for you to have fun as well:

Magic elf printables - you will find a passport - note pad and letters!

Make-Your-Own-Elf-On-the-Shelf  - fun ideas for your own elf adventure!

elfing around freestuff - Letters - gift tag - colouring sheets!

elf-on-shelf - ideas to hide your elf!

elf-on-the-shelf-name-ideas - yup - name ideas!

magic-elf-key-for-our-elf-on-shelf - magic key for your elf!

Elf on the Shelf official site - videos here to add to the tale!

Media story - Opinion regarding the use of the story here!

Well 'Our Elf' will begin visiting our classroom tomorrow - let's see how it goes! I'll report in later. :)

Update:

Here he is 'Stanley' watching over the tots!

He's on top of our calendar board.

He came with his passport...

.... and report book!

Oh and Stanley brought some presents to count! :)

The children responded well - we had a good day! :)


Added link: elf-on-shelf-freebie

I Spy Christmas Tubes

I was inspired by Teach Preschools candy cane sensory tubes to make these for my classroom and they were a hit!
I didn't want anything liquid - I have some really rough and tumble boys this year - I was not going to take any chances of slick floors - so mine just have treasures to seek inside much like my Christmas I Spy Jars.
We didn't have the candy cane tubes here so I used these:

There are mini ornaments inside.

They once held horrible jelly beans - so no great loss to dump them. :)

The red bead like filler is plastic melts for stain glass creative.

The kids are having fun shaking them as well - the sound they make is like a maraca. So they are not just a visual sensory toy but a sound toy as well.