Since I'm writing this post in late November, it's a great time to think about holiday decorations and activities, and nutcrackers come to mind! The nutcracker art project I'm showing here was all about cutting and pasting and shapes. As you can see we've used a variety of rectangles and some circles to create our nutcrackers, and then decorated them with markers. One of the lovely things about doing this project in my preschool was that the children could do it 2 or 3 years in a row, with different results that showed off their improved scissor and drawing skills.
Learning their name is a big deal for a child - being able to identify it, read it, and write the letters is something that takes a long time, but since their name is THE most important word in the whole world, it never gets old! For our snowmen names we cut out circles (one for each letter plus one for the head) and glued them down, wrote one letter on each circle, and decorated the snowman. We did a similar project with green triangles that stacked to make a Christmas tree - but you could also practice writing it with different pens, pencils and markers, stamp it, find the letters on a cereal box, etc, the possibilities are endless!
Number 3 and 4: Nests and Narwhals
Yes, I really did teach the kiddos about narwhals. It's easy to find a short video on YouTube about them, and then to talk about how awesome they are! The hand prints were inspired by these from Red Ted Art - she has SO many awesome ideas, you should definitely check out her blog!
The first nest was inspired by this one from Crystal and Co. but I later modified it by printing the side of a hand from the tip of the pinkie finger to the wrist, and I think it looks more nest like this way.
Number 5: Nuts
Clearly this isn't a good activity if you have a child with nut allergies. For those of you who can use nuts in the classroom, I found a bag of mixed nuts in the shell one December, used it for sensory play for a while, then later was still able to shell and eat the nuts. This was one of my first sensory bins to put together, and because the nut shells felt very wood-y, I included other wood like craft supplies: clothes pins, corks and popsicle sticks. They started out all sorted in small boxes (as you can see) and were used in various ways. I initially put them out with cardboard tubes, and the children slid them down, discovering that the nuts rolled and the sticks and clothes pins just slid down. Unfortunately some of the children decided the cardboard tubes made good arm cannons, so I decided to cut holes in a box and secure the tubes in the box for more purposeful play. (Yes, that's Paula talk for let's not pretend to kill each other.) Sometimes we dumped the nuts down the tubes, sometimes we sorted, sometimes they ended up in the toy farm. Overall it was a good introduction to sensory bins for both me and the children, as we all learned something.
Number 6: Numbers
Sure, your child can count to 10, or maybe 20, isn't that everything they need to know about numbers? Well, no. Once children have the counting sequence memorized it's time to start counting objects. Can they point to one object as they say each number? Do they know to stop counting when they run out of objects to count? Can they read the numbers and show you the correct number of fingers (apples, erasers, legos, etc.) to match the numeral? This Christmas themed counting activity covers numerals and number words up to 20, and is a fun way to practice numbers.
As they get a little bigger, you'll want your children to learn your phone number. I've found that chanting it together regularly makes it so much easier to remember! When my boys were little we'd recite our address and phone number every time we pulled into the driveway, and they had it memorized just in time for us to move to a new address. (You win some, you lose some)!
Number 7: Letter Nn crafts, of course!
For the uppercase letter N, I put out number stickers and challenged the children to put them on their letter in number order. The lowercase n was on either black paper, and decorated with stars to represent the night sky.
Number 8: Noise
The good news is, you don't even have to plan for this activity, chances are that your little one(s) will make plenty of noise anyway! This is a good week to provide musical instruments (outside is really best) or to have your child make their own noise makers. Not into noise? Substitute in Nature - there is always something to explore and discover outside!
Number 9: Nine little reindeer song
I wrote this counting rhyme several years ago, perhaps your littles will enjoy singing it with me!
That's it for this week! See you next time for the letter Oo. Until then, have a lovely week, a delicious Thanksgiving, and stay safe!
Paula
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