December Items, Pt. 2

I stayed at school until 5:45 tonight, setting up my art shelf with holiday themed work. I went a little overboard, but, hey, it's the holidays. I wanted to add some holiday spice to my practical life area as well, but T broke my BRAND NEW pitchers that I put out for dry pouring today. It was the first day that I put them out! It kind of deflated my practical life ideas. (Although, I am working on a grinding/tea exercise that I used to do in my old classroom, which will be perfect for cold months. I still have to collect a few items...)

Holiday Items

While I was home over Thanksgiving break, I was leisurely looking through the one MILLION catalogs/home magazines that my mother owns, when a fabulous idea flashed through my mind. Cut out holiday items and replace my scraps of paper in my collage work. Brilliant! A few Martha Stewart and Pottery Barn catalogs later, I had a whole bag full of Christmas trees, wreaths, ornaments, snowmen, and stars. The results have been really pretty. When I showed my neighbor Montessori teacher one of the student collages, she suggested that I laminate them, and turn them into Christmas placemats. I tried it out today, and it looks great! An accidental holiday gift. Hooray! The pictures are of how I place the items on the shelf, and the collage result (not laminated). You'll notice that the paper in the shelf picture is red, but the student artwork is on white paper. I realized that if I want to laminate some of the collages, it will come out better on cardstock, so I changed the paper to red cardstock.

In addition to the holiday collage, I also let the children make Christmas Chains to decorate the doorway and hallway. My rule is: "You may make chains as long as you are. Then it's time to make a new one, or put the work back on the shelf." To make the chain, simply take one strip, curl it into a circle and glue. Hold down for at least 15 seconds. Repeat, but link the next strip through the other circle. No pictures of the chains, yet.

For Hanukkah, I want to do something with the dreidl symbols, but I haven't decided the best way to have the children do this independently. I do, however, have a set of "Hanukkah Cards" for vocabulary work. I don't have a picture of them, which is actually a good thing. I handmade them last year and they are definitely NOT that pretty. The cards have pictures of the following: menorah, gelt, latkes, dreidl, and candles.

Lastly, I have a Kwanzaa card making activity on the art shelf. I found some Kwanzaa clip art, which I cut out into small circles. These are black and white due to our fabulous copier. So, I have provided a few crayons to color them in if the child wishes. These can be glued on to the card (folded construction paper in red, green or black). Older children can write on the cards as well, if they want. Don't look too closely at the silver tray, because I used to use it for silver polishing. There is some polish on there that I definitely can't get off!