By Gigi on November 22nd, 2017
As a parent and a teacher, it’s always been fun and important for me to introduce ALL of my children to what I loved and adored, and learned from when I was young.
So every holiday season, I bring out the The Gingerbread Man
. To me, this first edition Giant Golden Book was the most magical story ever. As a child I spent hours looking over the vibrant illustrations of Bill and Bonnie Rutherford, letting my imagination run away right along with that fearless, little yummy cookie.
This classic book is ideal for reading aloud and makes for an excellent literary-based art activity; gingerbread men and houses. Last year, we used our creations to decorate our classroom window.
The houses are made of basic shapes (squares, rectangles, and triangles) and can be cut out by you or by your children depending on their ability. This year, I will be offering even more materials such as stiff felt, fuzzy sticks, bows, etc., so maybe we’ll see some gingerbread girls!
MATERIALS USED:
– Construction paper
– Our gingerbread template
– Googly eyes
– Ricrac
– Acrylic craft jewels
– Stiff felt/fabric
– Sparkle/glitter pom poms
– Buttons
– Holiday scrapbook paper
– Sequins
– Mini bows
– White foam (roofs)
– Holiday fuzzy sticks
NOTE: Be sure to check out our Christmas Math and Literacy pack for more gingerbread activities!
By Gigi on November 13th, 2017
These free printable Christmas trees provide children with a fun way to match numerals with quantity. Have students identify the number on each tree and “decorate” it with the corresponding number of “ornaments”. Encourage children to count every item once, using one number word.
To extend this activity, ask pre-kers to examine and compare the number sets of trees. Ask, “Which set has more? Which set has less?” when showing 2 sets. Remind children that the world less means not as many.
You can also use this tree game as an opportunity to practice adding and taking away skills.
Use words such as more, plus, all together, total, etc. to help students gain an understating of “adding more”. “There is 1 ornament on this Christmas tree, and 2 ornaments on this tree. How many ornaments are on the trees all together?” Set up trees 1, 2 and 3 in a row to model this addition problem. Do the same with subtraction, using words such as less, take away, and how many are left.
Download our free numbered Christmas trees. For heavy use, I recommend printing on cardstock and lamination.
By Gigi on November 11th, 2017
This Thanksgiving turkey craft is a cute, fun art project. But it’s also a wonderful lesson in math, as it is completely made up of 2D and 3D shapes! There are so many learning concepts in this little gobbler.
The hat is made up of squares and a rectangle, the eyes are circles, and the beak is a triangle. We used the Fiskars large heart punch to make the wattle, and the tail is a paper plate cut into a semicircle. Square tissues were used as feathers, and everything was attached to a cardboard tube/cylinder.
As children assemble their turkeys, have them analyze, compare, and identify the shapes based on their attributes; facilitate conversation about the similarities and the differences of the objects. When working with older students (pre-kers and kinders) who are developmentally ready, take this opportunity to introduce the vocabulary words 2D and 3D, and talk about how 2D shapes are flat and 3D are not.
MATERIALS USED:
– Toilet paper roll
– Construction paper
– Fabric
– Tissue paper
– Googly eyes
– Stiff felt
– Paper plate
– Fiskars large heart punch
– Glue
– Scissors
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