One special thing we did this year was the Family Thumbprint Christmas Tree Ornament (you can see 2 pictured above).  I wanted a way to document our last year as a family of 3, and I thought this would be a cute way to do it.  We pressed our thumbprints into the dough before baking, and then I colored them each a different color and added some details and our name with a black fine-tip Sharpie.  Next year, we’re going to need a bigger tree ornament to fit all 4 of our thumbprints!  This was actually the only salt dough ornament that went on the tree.

The rest were used for gift tags!  Part necessity because we ran out of gift tags, part “okay, what do we do with all of the ornaments now that we made them?”  Aside from their slightly delicate nature (I did accidentally break one when I stacked a few presents on top of each other), I LOVE the way the salt dough ornaments look as gift tags.  I wrote on them with a fine tip sharpie.

One batch of dough made plenty for us!

Salt Dough Ornaments

recipe from The Happy Housewife

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup warm water

Mix together flour and salt.  Then mix in the warm water.  Mix until you have a dough that is similar in consistency to pie crust.  Take the dough and place it on a floured surface.  Roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick.  Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. If you don’t have cookie cutters you could use a glass to cut circles.  Put the shapes on a cookie sheet.  Then take a sharp object (I used a meat thermometer) to put a small hole in each shape where you will insert the ribbon. Make sure the hole goes all the way through the dough, because it will close up slightly while baking.  Bake the salt dough ornaments for 4 to 6 hours at 200 degrees or until hardened.  Paint and decorate as desired!

We used plastic hammers and real nails to hammer buttons onto a styrofoam cone to make a button Christmas tree.  The Littlest Apple stuck with this for longer than expected, but did get a little frustrated with some of our buttons that had extra-large holes (because they kept falling off the nails).  I went with a white cone because a) that’s all I could find and b) I thought it would make a pretty snow-covered backdrop for our green and red buttons since I knew we wouldn’t be completely covering the tree.  If you want it to look more like a Christmas tree, you could use a green styrofoam cone.

What activities do you have planned to keep your kids busy while they’re out of school for the Christmas break?

So, as I mentioned, I was super excited about this one, and pumped about our very first Advent Activity.  I got all our supplies out, and sat down with The Littlest Apple.  He wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with this project.  Sometimes if I get started on my own, he’ll decide he’s interested after all and join in.  Not this time.  So this one was all me.  He played with his Gingerbread Playdough instead.  Maybe your kiddos will enjoy this more than mine did.  I enjoyed it!

What you’ll need:

• Clear contact paper
• Tissue paper, cut into squares or small shapes
• Glitter
• Permanent markers
• Aluminum foil
• Scissors
• Ribbon

Trace a plate on the contact paper to get the basic circle shape for your ornament, then freehand the top of the ornament.  (Make 2 of those, you’ll be sandwiching them together). Then peel the backing off one circle, and stick the tissue paper squares on.  Add glitter if using.  Then cut the aluminum foil to cover the top part of the ornament you free-handed, and stick that in place.  Now take the backing off the other piece of contact paper, and carefully line them up, sandwiching the tissue paper and glitter inside.  I then took a black sharpie and hand colored the outline on my ornament.  (You could also use black construction paper as a border, as we did with the Easter version, but that’s a little more work!)  Cut out a hole at the top for your ribbon, then hang your ornament in the window.

Gingerbread Playdough

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt (use table salt, not kosher salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 tablespoon cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup water
• brown food coloring (optional)

Combine all dry ingredients in a pot.  Add water, oil and food coloring (if using) and stir continuously over low heat until mixture takes on a dough-like consistency.  Dough should pull away from the bottom and sides and form a ball, and it shouldn’t be sticky any more.  Remove from pot and let cool for just a minute.  Then knead until dough is smooth.

I’m sharing this post with Link & Learn at No Time For Flashcards.

The Littlest Apple LOVED these Letter Paths from Tons of Fun.  There are paths for every letter A-Z (upper case and lower case) as well as Number Paths for 1-20.  We used F (The Littlest Apple’s initial).  He used his Do-A-Dot Markers for this- one color to mark all of the capital F’s and a different color to mark all of the lower case F’s.

We also made good use of the Thanksgiving Preschool Pack, from 1+1+1=1.  The Littlest Apple loved the pictures (most were images from the Little People Thanksgiving set, something he’s seen at preschool).  He completed several of the activities and would have done more if we had more time before Thanksgiving Day!  I don’t have more photos of him in action because I was busy cooking, but here’s a sample of one of the activities:

I’m definitely going to print out and prep some other printables to keep on hand for times when I just need a few minutes to get something done.

Here are some sites/blogs that have great free printables:

1+1+1=1- Loads of different units for Tots and Preschoolers.  I’ve got my eye on this Gingerbread Baby Pack as well as the Knights Preschool Pack (pictured below).  There are excellent options for boys AND girls!

Over the Big Moon- a recent find for me, via Pinterest.  She has a handful of seasonal themes, including the Nativity Pre-K Pack (pictured below) and Winter Wonderland

Confessions of a Homeschooler-tons of free printables, including a Christmas Preschool Pack (one activity pictured below).  She also has a Letter of the Week Curriculum that includes 26 weeks worth of activities for just $10

Musings of Me-lots of great free themed units like the Superhero Unit (pictured below), and the Christmas ABC Coloring book.

Lawteedah- printables for letters, colors, shapes, themed units, holidays.  I’ve got my eye on the Alphabet Tracing Pages (pictured below).

What are your favorite websites for tot/preschool printables?  Do you use printables regularly?

When I found them a few weeks ago, I thought we could put them to good use.  I grabbed some toothpicks and The Littlest Apple and I got busy building.

This was a huge hit with The Littlest Apple, and definitely a project we’ll be revisiting in the future!

This variation was new to me, however.  The Littlest Apple brought this home from his Gardening Club at preschool today, and I thought this idea was too cute not to share. They used mini pumpkins not as vases, but as flower pots!  They scooped out the insides of the pumpkins, then filled the pumpkins with soil and flowers.  This would look really neat in a larger pumpkin too!  The coolest thing about this project is that it is 100% biodegradable!  You can plant the pumpkin in a pot or in your garden as soon as you’re done with it.  This was obviously planted by a preschooler, but isn’t this a cute idea?

Here’s a quick fall craft The Littlest Apple and I did the other day using corks, inspired by Pinterest.  This isn’t our first time using corks to paint..we used them last year for our Indian Corn Painting, too.

First, I cut a tree form out of brown construction paper and glued it to the white paper.  You could also paint the tree and then wait for it to dry, but we were being impatient.  Then I presented some fall paint colors and corks of different sizes to paint with.

The Littlest Apple decided that most of the leaves had fallen off of his tree already…

I couldn’t resist making my own.  This was lots of fun!

So easy, but so beautiful!

I’m sharing this activity with…

Show and Share Saturday @ I Can Teach My Child

Link & Learn @ No Time for Flash Cards

What You’ll Need:

• Elmer’s glue (most kinds of white craft glue will work)
• 2 disposable cups
• Food coloring (you pick the color)
• Water
• Borax Powder (available at most large grocery stores near the laundry detergent)
• A plastic spoon (for stirring)
• A tablespoon (for measuring)

What to Do:

1. Fill one small cup with water and add a spoonful of the Borax powder and stir it up. Then set it aside.
2. Fill the other small cup with about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of the glue.
3. Add three tablespoons (20 ml) of water to the glue and stir.
4. Add a few drops of the food coloring and stir it up until mixed.
5. Now the fun part…Add one tablespoons of the Borax solution you made earlier and stir well. Watch the slime form!
6. After the slime forms let it sit for about 30 seconds and then pull it off the spoon and play with it!

Playing and stretching out the slime after it has dried out some. It’s spongy and rubbery in texture.  Not drippy, messy slime by the point…

tongue out helps him focus, apparently…

Here are all the ways we played with the plastic cups:

• We stacked them top to bottom as high as we could
• We lined them up
• We sorted them by color (there were red and blue cups)
• We made patterns
• We stacked them pyramid style (both big and little pyramids)
• We watched some videos online of kids speed stacking cups, and then timed ourselves to see how fast we could stack them up and take them down
• We tossed a plastic golf ball into the cups
• We smashed and crashed them and knocked them down (not my favorite part, but The Littlest Apple certainly liked this!)

The first time we played with them for about an hour and a half (and much of that was The Littlest Apple playing all by himself, something he rarely does).  An HOUR AND A HALF!!

Plastic cups.

Who knew?!

What strange things around the house keep your kids entertained?