Olive / Rudolph Game

One of our favorite Christmas books (and I'm sure a lot of other peoples' too) is Olive, the Other Reindeer.  Olive, an adorable little dog hears people singing "All of the other reindeer..." and understands it to be "Olive, the other reindeer..."  She decides she must be a reindeer instead of a dog and departs immediately for the North Pole to help Santa.  Santa (being the generous guy he is) decides to go ahead and let her be a part of the team leading his sleigh.  Though she can't fly, Olive helps in other unexpected ways.  She chews Santa out of the tree he becomes tangled in (dogs are good at chewing things), she retrieves the flutes that fall out of the sleigh (dogs are good at retreiving stick-like things) and she sniffs her way back to the North Pole through the fog (dogs are good at smelling things, especially cookies baked by Mrs. Claus.)  Olive proves to be so useful that Santa makes her an honorary reindeer and they all head out to play reindeer games.

So we did too!  You pretty much cannot read Olive without singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer so this is sort of a combination game.  Put a nose on Rudolph or throw a ball to Olive.  I started by cutting some holes in the top of an empty ice cream bucket.

I printed off some pictures from the internet.  I also covered the bucket with wrapping paper to make it a little more festive. Meet Olive and Rudolph:

I gave the kids some bouncy balls and we tried to bounce them into the holes in the top of the bucket.  Drew loves anything resembling sports.  I was worried it was going to be too hard but he got quite a few in.  I'm sure with older kids you could assign different point values to the holes and practice a little math but we're not quite ready for that yet.

As usual, Lainey went the more logical route and just placed the ball directly into the bucket.

Drew loved it so much he took it to bed with him last night.  (The game, not the book.) 

Thanks for joining me for Day 3 of Ready. Set. Read! and Reading Confetti's 12 Days of Christmas!   Head on over there to see what Jackie's up to today.  Yesterday, she reviewed Llama Llama Holiday Drama (love that llama) and did a cute craft with her 22 month old son.  Sometimes it's so hard to come up with something for the really little ones, isn't it?  This is an easy and quick Christmas tree craft that they'll really be proud of!

Linking to It's Playtime!, What are little boys made of?, JDaniel4's Mom, What My Child is Reading

Blessings Tree

Like most people, I want to teach my kids that Christmas isn't all about the presents.  So I decided to do a blessings tree.  I made a tree shape out of scrapbook paper and added ornaments that say, "The best gifts aren't wrapped."  (Of course, older kids could make this themselves.)

Then I added some "gifts". 

We started by reading The Littlest Angel.  I love this book.  It's about a little boy angel who just can't seem to get anything right.  His halo keeps slipping, he sings off-key, he can't even fly!  When it's time for everyone to give a present to the newborn baby Jesus, the Littlest Angel doesn't know what he can possibly give.  He can't sing a tune, he can't write a prayer, he has no shining gifts to give.  Finally, he decides on his most valued possession.  It's a rough, ugly box full of things that the little boy treasured on Earth like a sky-blue egg shell, two white stones from a muddy river bank, and a worn collar from a much loved dog.  When it comes time to open the gifts, the Littlest Angel becomes terrified and ashamed that he has given these things.  Then God's voice tells him that of all the gifts, the Littlest Angel's pleases him most of all.  That small dirty box becomes the star of Bethlehem.

This book is a little long for my 2 and 3 year old, but Drew was fascinated with the pictures and asked lots of questions.  I think it was easy for him to identify with the main character. ;) I love the message in this book and I think it's so good for little ones to hear.

After we finished reading, I showed them the tree I made and tried to explain what it means that the best gifts aren't wrapped.  We talked about how many things we have to be thankful for at Christmas and all through the year.  I asked them what kinds of things we can be thankful for and Drew said, "Snow blowers" (he meant snow globes - he loves those things) and "Drew".  Lainey said, "Christmas tree".  I think this was all a little over their heads but I figure it's better to start earlier rather than later.  I wrote those things on the gifts under the tree and told them I was adding, "Jesus", "hugs", and "Lainey".

Thank you for joining me for day 2 of our 12 Days of Christmas, where Jackie from Ready. Set. Read! and I will be sharing a favorite Christmas book and activity each day.  Head on over there and see what she's got planned for us today!  If you missed Day 1, she had an adorable (and easy!) Christmas tree puzzle for preschoolers and a very fitting book to get things started!

Linking to Crayon Freckles, The Inspiration Board, Type A, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Tip Junkie, Sweet Little Gals, Scraps of Life, Sugar & Spice, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees, Living Life Intentionally, A Creative Princess, Mom on Timeout, Thrifty 101, Bear Rabbit Bear, The Artsy Girl Connection, Gluesticks, The Crafty Nest, Happy Hour Projects, Designer Garden,  

Blissful and Domestic

Find Your Craft Friday

Sun Scholars  

Simply Sweet Home

Ladybird Ln  

Sassy Sites! 

Shine On Fridays 

Crafty Moms Share

Alina's Adventures in Homemaking

Junk in their Trunk

Paper Punch Trees

 Today is the first day of our 12 days of Christmas! Jackie from Ready. Set. Read! and I are teaming up to each bring you 12 of our favorite Christmas books and activities every weekday from now until December 13! 

Welcome to day 1!  Drew is fascinated with the hole puncher so we made some paper punch trees.  This is a great activity for using up scraps of paper.

I drew a small Christmas tree shape on green construction paper and then we cut them out.

Then we used a hole punch to make "ornaments" in our tree.

We flipped it over and glued scraps of different colored paper to the back and attached a craft stick.

Drew made this one all by himself!

To go with our craft, we read Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree.  This is a great rhyming story about a man who has a Christmas tree delivered and discovers it's too tall.  He has the top cut off and gives it to his maid for her Christmas tree.  She too trims off the top and the gardener uses it for his tree.  This keeps on until a mouse family gets the very tippy-top of the tree for their mouse hole.

Don't forget to head over to Ready. Set. Read! for the 12 Days of Christmas by Rachel Isadora and a fun Christmas tree puzzle.  If you are here from Ready. Set. Read!  thanks so much for coming by!

Linking to The Gunny Sack, Life in the Motherhood, Delicate Construction, Monday Madness, ABC and 123, Red Ted Art, Playing with words 365

A Mommy's Adventures

Christmas Word Sort Tutorial

Happy Thanksgiving!  Now that the Christmas season is officially starting, I wanted to share a quick word sort I made a few days ago.  It's a long and short e word sort with a holiday theme.  Any kind of play with words is great, but word sorts are especially beneficial because kids start to recognize patterns in words.   This would probably be the best fit for kids in the upper primary or lower elementary grades, although of course it would be appropriate for older struggling readers or advanced younger readers.

To begin, make three Christmas tree shapes with places for four ornaments each.  Label the stars with "ee", "ea", and "short e" (I don't know how to do that symbol on my computer!)

Make your ornaments.  You'll need 12 total and they should say:
("ea"):

• peace
• feast
• meal
• season

("ee"):

• green
• reindeer
• tree
• freeze

("short e"):

• elf
• red
• sled
• present

Have your child sort the words onto the correct tree.  Here's my two year old at work:

This is what it looked like when she was done.  Well, almost.  Or not quite.  Or not at all.

When your child is finished, have him or her read the words aloud and then copy them onto the tree. 

If you want to make it more challenging you could leave the stars off the trees and have them figure out how to sort the words onto the three trees themselves.

If your little readers aren't ready for word sorts yet, you could use the same idea to have them sort for colors, letters, or beginning sounds.  I did one for Drew matching the letters in his name.

Linking to What are Little Boys Made Of?, Happy Hour Projects, Local Fun for Kids, Shine On Fridays, Sun Scholars, Crafty Moms Share, I Can Teach My Child

Our Preschool Turkey Hunt

Thanksgiving is almost here!!  I have a fun Thanksgiving activity for your little ones that requires almost no prep work so you can have some holiday fun with your kids and still have time to do the three bazillion things that need doing.


We went on a turkey hunt today.  The idea came from Turkey Surprise which is a cute story about two pilgrim brothers who go hunting for a turkey.  The younger brother is not at all sure he wants to shoot, cook, and eat a turkey, so whenever he sees the poor bird, he leads his older brother in the other direction.  The hapless turkey is helped by several other animals.  The bird tells him to hide in a tree, but the leaves blow away.  The fish tells him to hide in the water behind a rock, but the turkey realizes he can't swim.  Finally, the little pilgrim offers the turkey his own hiding spot and takes his older brother to the pumpkin patch.  They decide to have pumpkin pie rather than turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

I printed off the 20 little turkeys from the printable here and hid them around the playroom.  Then I told the kids we were going on a turkey hunt!

The kids loved it.  We kept having to do it over and over again.  "Hide the chickens! Hide the chickens!"  I could not convince them that they were turkeys and not chickens.

It was also good counting practice.

One thing that I thought was funny was that my three year old (male) would be standing right on top of a turkey yelling "I don't see it!" while I gave him "hints".  In the meantime, my two year old (female) would stare right at it, wait for him to see it, give up on him, and just get it herself.  This is very similar to how the older male and female in this house locate things.  Is that only my house?

Double Handprint Reindeer

Just wanted to share a quick activity my stepdaughter and I did over the weekend.  It goes perfectly with the book The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett who is also the author of The Mitten and Town Mouse, Country Mouse.

Teeka's job is to get the wild reindeer ready for Santa.  Carried away with the big responsibility, she yells and acts bossy to the reindeer before she finally realizes that this isn't the best way to get the job done.  She becomes kinder and gentler and successfully prepares her team for Santa's sleigh ride.  This is a sweet reindeer story for both young and older readers.

Also, I'm sharing my book advent calendar over at Gluesticks today!  Come on over and visit!!!

Linking to Delicate Construction, Tip Junkie, Reasons to Skip the Housework, Today's Creative Blog, Tiaras and Bowties, Type A, ABC and 123, Crayon Freckles, Bear Rabbit Bear, Red Ted Art, It's Playtime!, Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, I Heart Nap Time, Sew Can Do, DIY Home Sweet Home, The Southern Institute, For Love of Cupcakes, Today's Creative Blog

Christmas Book Advent

It all started with this FREE basket I got from a rummage sale. (Why is it the less I pay for something the more I like it? )

I spray painted it red and added a bow. Then I gathered 25 books about Christmas or winter or snow.  I numbered star-shaped sticky notes and stuck them to the cover of each book.

Inside the back cover I put another sticky note with a treat or activity relating to the book and piled them all in the basket.

Here's our advent plan: (which I'm sure I will end up switching around a little. I have an advantage in this because my kids can't read yet so I can tell them the note says pretty much whatever I want!)

1. The Littlest Christmas Tree -Drinking Straw Christmas Tree here
2. The Mitten-Mitten activity here
3. Mooseltoe - decorate the tree or do the puzzle found here
4.  A Very Special Snowflake - snowflake craft here
5. The Littlest Angel - Blessings Tree here
6. Are You Grumpy, Santa? - visit to Santa and Strawberry Cheesecake Santa Hats
7. All You Need for a Snowman - the egg carton snowmen found here
8.A Silly Snowy Day - shape turtle (post to come)
9.  Rock-a-bye Christmas - make Christmas Tree Bells
10. The Night Before Christmas - color Santa according to the description in the book
11.  Flip and Flop - a version of these footprint penguins
12. Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect - Shop for Toys for Tots
13.Christmas Mice! - the Christmas version of our Halloween Mice
14. The Polar Express - have hot chocolate like they do on the train
15. The First Night - take out and play with our Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set or candy nativity
16. Stella, Queen of the Snow - make snowmen out of marshmallows
17.Christmas Mouse- dollar store shopping for gifts to give (from the kids to others)
18. The Snowman Band of Snowboggle Bend - dance to Christmas songs
19. Not Enough Beds: A Christmas Alphabet Book (Carolrhoda Picture Books) - take "naps" in funny parts of the house, like the bath tub
20. Is That You, Winter? - splatter painting like the illustrations in the book
21. Christmas Angels: Read and Share - make a birthday cake and sing for Baby Jesus
22. A Christmas Present for: Me! - treat!
23.  Christmas in the Country - play in the snow
24. Christmas Tapestry - celebrate Christmas Eve with family

(For even more activity and book choices go to 24 Book Inspired Crafts!)

This is a pretty ambitious list around here so we'll see how many times I tell the kids the post-it says, "Have a treat at the kitchen table so Mom gets 5 minutes of peace."

Linking to I Can Teach My Child, The Sunday Showcase, I {Heart} Nap Time, Vanilla Bean Girls, Homemaker on a Dime, Sew Can Do, DIY Home Sweet Home, Monday Madness, The Southern Institute, Home Savvy A to Z, The Girl Creative, The Gunny Sack, One Tough Mother, Today's Creative Blog, The Inspiration Board, Ginger Snap Crafts, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees, I Gotta Create!, Someday Crafts, A Creative Princess, The Artsy Girl Connection, The Crafty Nest, Delicate Construction, Bacon Time, Family Ever After, Tatertots & Jello, Tutus & Tea Parties, Six Sisters' Stuff, Shine On Fridays, Blissful and Domestic, Vanilla Bean Girls
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