Tot School: Christmas

  I just love the holiday season with kids.  Our schedule is packed this time of year, but we managed to squeeze in all sorts of Christmas fun during this 2 week unit.

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  Here were our plans for our special 2 week Christmas theme:

And here are the details of each activity:

Our favorite Christmas books were:

How to Catch a Santa By Jean Reagan
Click Clack Ho! Ho! Ho! By Doreen Cronin
Dream Snow By Eric Carle
Snowmen at Christmas By Caralyn Buehner
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell By Lucille Colandro
The Polar Bear Who Saved Christmas By Fiona Boon
Merry Christmas, Splat By Rob Scotton
The Not Very Merry Pout-Pout Fish By Deborah Diesen
Llama Llama Holiday Drama By Anna Dewdney
It’s Christmas David By David Shannon

  Play Dough Christmas Trees:

We love play dough trays over here, so this week I pulled out green play dough, a tree cookie cutter, foam shapes, buttons and sequins. It made for a nice enticing invitation to create for Madelynn to explore.

 Jingle Bell Painting:

  With a little baby around, sometimes I need a little mess (and stress!) free painting activity to keep Madelynn busy so that I don’t have to keep a super close eye on her.  This jingle bell painting was really easy and fun for her. First, I put a piece of cardstock in a plastic bag. Then I added a few drops of red and green tempera paint, and dropped in a few jingle bells.  Madelynn rolled, pressed, and shook the bag to move the paint around on the paper.

Candy Cane Salt Tray:

Salt trays are great for writing and fine motor practice so this week I made a salt tray with salt and red glitter. Then we used candy canes to make lines and shapes. Madelynn even enjoyed just playing with the salt in her hands.

Gumdrop Building:

  Madelynn loved stacking, poking (and eating) these little Christmas gumdrops. I encouraged her to make 2D shapes and 3D structures as well as to see how tall of a tower she could build.

Christmas Tree Dot Stamps:

Dot stamps are always a crowd pleaser around here. So this week we used these Do A Dot Art! Markers to dot the ornaments on our Christmas tree. Madelynn is still working on placing them in each circle, but this is really helping her build one to one correspondence for counting as well.

Christmas Sticker Letter Match:

First, I made a Christmas tree letter matching page with the letters in Madelynn’s name. Then, I wrote the same letters on round labels. Madelynn used the sticker “ornaments” to  match and decorate her tree.

Christmas Light Colors:

For a little fine motor color matching combo, I made this christmas light page for matching. Then I gave Madelynn a bin of rainbow colored pom poms and she used tweezers to grab and match them to the page.

Reindeer Antler Colors:

I’ve been wanting to introduce Wikki Stix to Madelynn for a while, so I created this little activity to get her exploring. First she chose colored Wikki Stix to match each reindeer then she molded them into antler shapes.

Number Present Match:

I created this matching game for some number practice. We have been working really hard on counting slowly with one to one correspondence and Madelynn really did a great job up to about 5! I also used rhinestone stickers on the present for added tactile interest.  I found they really helped her slow down to count each one.

Christmas Bow Painting:

For this super simple art activity I poured red, yellow, white, and green tempera paint into a tray and added present bows.  Madelynn explored stamping and swishing them around the page to make a really fun textured look.

Christmas Scarf Dance:

  Dancing is a daily gross motor activity in our house anyways, so to add some Christmas flair I pulled out some red and green scarves.  Then I cranked up some Christmas music and we had a festive dance party

Wreath Ring Toss:

  To make this ring toss game I hot glued an empty paper towel tube to a paper plate then painted it red.  Then I cut the center out of 3 more paper plates and had Madelynn paint them green for “wreaths.”

Candy Cane Hunt:

We have way too many candy canes laying around at Christmas time, so I decided to make them into a game. I hid 10 candy canes around the house and Madelynn had to search high and low and count them to be sure she found them all.

Christmas Tree Balance:

Our spider web balance game was a hit for Halloween so we made a Christmas Tree version with green washi tape.  First Madelynn practiced walking across the center. Then I had her try different forms of movement: jumping, hopping on one foot, leaping, tiptoeing, crawling, etc.

Don’t Ring the Bell:

This game was essentially a limbo game with jingle bells. I strung several bells and stretched the string across the room.  Madelynn had to try to make her way under the string without ringing a bell as I moved the string progressively lower and lower.

  Christmas Snacks:

Strawberry Banana Candy Cane  – Slice a banana and strawberries into circles.  Alternate fruits and lay in a cane shape on a plate.

Veggie Christmas Trees – Use a cookie cutter to cut tortillas into tree shapes.  Spread with a thin layer of cream cheese. Slice cucumbers and lay on top of the cream cheese. Cut a star shape from sliced cheese and add to the top.  Sprinkle diced peppers on top.

Rice Crispy Trees – Heat 3 Tbsp butter and 4 cups mini marshmallows in microwave on high for 3 minutes. Stir after 2 minutes. Remove a scoop of the mixture and add 1 cup Cocoa Krispies cereal. Add green food coloring and 5 cups rice cereal to the remaining marshmallow mixture. Stir until well coated. Using cooking spray or wax paper, press green cereal mixture into triangle cookie cutters. Add small squares of Cocoa Krispies mixture to the bottom of each triangle. Cool on wax paper. Decorate with icing and candy pieces.

Reindeer Peanut Butter Crackers – Spread circle crackers with peanut butter. Add two pretzels near the top for antlers. Add candy eyes and jelly beans for the eyes and nose.

M&M Christmas Tree Count – Use printable christmas tree mats to count out the correct number of M&M candy ornaments to fill each tree.

Christmas Crunch Popcorn – Pop 2 bags microwave popcorn. Remove any unpopped popcorn kernels. Toss in broken pretzels and M&Ms. Melt vanilla candy melts according to package. Pour half of melted candy over popcorn mixture. Stir and repeat with the second half. Pour mixture onto wax paper and add sprinkles.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Trees – Wash, dry, and cut off the top of each strawberry. Melt green candy melts according to the package. Dip strawberries in green candy melt. Sprinkle with white nonpareils and candy cane sprinkles.  Add a star sprinkle at the top. Place on wax paper and allow candy to set.

Santa Strawberries – Wash, dry, and cut off the top of each strawberry. Slice strawberries again near the top. Fill a bag with cool whip. Place bigger part of strawberry on plate. Pipe cool whip on top. Squish the smaller pointy strawberry piece on top and add another small dollop of cool whip. Add nonpareils or sprinkles for eyes and nose.

Reindeer Brownies – Bake your favorite brownie recipe or use a boxed mix.  Cut brownies into rectangles. Use a bit of icing to attach pretzels to the top for antlers. Use more icing to attach candy eyes and a jelly bean nose for the reindeer face.

Candy Cane Cookies – Make your favorite sugar cookie cutout recipe or use a bag mix. Split cookie dough in half and dye one half red.  Roll a tablespoon of each color out into a “hot dog” like you would with playdough.  Twist the colors together, shape into a cane, and bake according to recipe directions.

Magnetic Christmas Tree Bin:

In this sensory bin: cotton ball “snow,” red and green Magnatiles, jingle bells, and magnetic bingo chips In this bin we used Magnatiles to build Christmas trees. Then decorated our trees with jingle bells and magnetic bingo chips. Good clean holiday themed fun!

Ornament Water Bead Bin:

In this sensory bin: green water beads, plastic fillable ornaments, colored gems and sequins, and scoops

Ornament Snow Filling Bin:

In this sensory bin: poly fil, plastic fillable ornaments, and fine motor tools Beware poly fil beads can hold a lot of static!! For a static free version you could also use poly pellets which are clear and less like snow, but also less of a mess!

Present Wrapping Bin:

  In this sensory bin: squares of wrapping paper, tape, scissors, and small boxes

Christmas Tree Sensory Bag:

  To make this bag, tape the 2 long edges of a triangle shaped treat bag with green duct tape.  Fill bag with green food coloring, shaving cream and foam circles. Push air out of the bag. Fold the edge over a few times and use green duct tape to seal the edge.  Tape a foam star and trunk to the outside of the bag.

Red and Green Peppermint Rice:

In this sensory bin: rice (dyed red, green and white, then scented with mint extract), plastic candy canes, and Christmas mini erasers

Ornament Water Filling Bin:

In this sensory bin: water, plastic fillable ornaments, red and green beads, eye droppers, and food coloring

 Candy Cane Slime:

To make this slime: Pour 6 oz. of red glitter glue into a bowl. Add ½ Tbsp baking soda and mix. Add 1 ¼ Tbsp. contact lens solution. Mix until slime forms.  If mixture is too sticky add more contact solution. Repeat with white glue and add glitter. Twist and squish the colors together to make candy canes.

Christmas Color Sorting Bin:

  In this sensory bin: white beans, red and green items (jingle bells, pipe cleaners, mini lights, mini presents, etc.)

Christmas Light Box Trees:

In this sensory bin: green tissue paper triangles, brown tissue paper rectangles, magnetic bingo chips, sequins, gems, clear tray and light pad

Want all of this week’s Christmas activities for tot school?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Christmas Plans & Printables On TpT: Christmas Plans & Printables

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Tot School Bundle On TpT here: Tot School Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Tot School Curriculum Main Page.