Christmas Countdown Calendar

A17 has been requesting magnet activities so we made this magnetic Christmas countdown calendar. I found ideas for it here . I modified the ideas to make this easier and cheaper. We bought a cookie sheet at the dollar store as well as mini ornaments. I already had the scrapbook paper, adhesive and magnetic tape.

To make this calendar, cut scrapbook paper to fit the cookie sheet. Mark 25 squares on the middle sheet. Use tape runner or other paper adhesive to glue down the paper. Place number stickers on square . If you don't have number stickers, just use a marker. Embellish with stickers, mini ornaments, etc. Cut small sqares of magnetic tape and adhere to back of counters. I used these presents because they were light weight and stood up so A17 could manipulate them easier.

Enjoy the countdown to Christmas!

Fall Crafts

A17 loves crafts. He made these leaf decorations with his Grandma. They collected leaves and ironed them between wax paper.

They were hung by punching a hole with a hole punch and tying coordinating ribbon.

He also made these leaf rubbings with his Grandmas. Leaves that were thicker are easier to see when you rub the crayon over them.


These foam and pom pom turkeys were made with a kit I found on clearance after the holiday last year.

Next up--Christmas crafts!

Christmas Bags by Kendra

I know it's early, but if you are like me, things that aren't planned in advance don't get done! Kendra over at Aussie Pumpkin Patch posted about her Christmas bags. This is a wonderful idea for organizing and completing holiday crafts. Basically you put the supplies for a craft in an individual bag. These bags are then given out one at a time. I like that it helps me be ready in advance with supplies. I also think more craft would be actually completed this way. These would also work well for workboxes.

Craft Box

One thing that has been a suprise to me this year is how often A17 requests to do crafts. He has enjoyed coloring in the past, but not much else. Now, he asks me to get out our craft box. I put together a basic craft box at the start of the school year so we would be able to do some basic crafts whenever the mood strikes. He needs lots of help due to fine motor issues but really enjoys choosing supplies, colors and pointing where something should go!

The box is a tall clear tote with a lid and a handle. I keep the paints in a separate box in case of leaks.

A look inside shows:

sheets of felt in several basic colors

colored pipe cleaners

googly eyes

jingle bells in gold and silver

beads

glitter paints

glitter in sprinkle tubes

Elmers clear washable school glue

Elmers glue sticks

crafts sticks--regular and jumbo--plain colored

pom poms--variety of colors and sizes

colored feathers

Crayola washable kid paints

paint brush with thick handle

Crayola So Big crayons

Crayola washable markers

Our biggest craft find has been foam stickies that you can buy in tubs at craft stores. These have been a huge hit with A17! He uses these to make cards, bookmarks, door hangers, collages, etc. We have also purchased several themed kits-- a pirate ship and a log cabin--to go along with our unit studies. I prefer to buy the ones with the sticky background so we don't have to mess around with gluing small pieces.

For anyone doing the workbox system, we have found that the following crafty items really work well in the boxes.

Kumon First Steps Workbooks--Let's color, Let's sticker and paste, Let's Fold,

Crayola Color Wonder books and markers

Let's Draw with Chalk ( or other chalk books)

paint with water books

aquadoodle

washable stamp pads and stamps ( we use an adapted handle and tape/velcro the stamp on)

A17 uses adapted scissors. These are a push down type. I put the paper in and move it as necessary while he pushes down on the handle.

Ocean Craft Projects

A17 is really enjoying doing crafts this year--especially foam projects. As part of our ocean unit we have completed several neat projects.

I found this foam fish bowl and bucket of foam sticky backed ocean shapes at Joann's. They were on sale and I used my teacher discount card.

The plastic fish bowl is an idea I adapted from Family Fun magazine. For their project they put magnets under the lid and a paper ckip in the fish for it to stand up. We couldn't get that to work right, so we weighted down the bottom with sand, shells, and glass rocks ( all from Joanns) and put foam shapes taped to pipe cleaners. Turned out cute I think!

The last project is an idea from the Hands of a Child Clownfish lapbook. I had to adapt it a bit for DS. Instead of using the pattern included in the pack, we used a foam shape. It's taped to a popsicle stick that was cut in half. We cut a styrofoam ball in half. A17 painted it. Next we cut pipe cleaners in half and stuck them into the styrofoam to make it look like anemones. We then stuck the fish in and put the whole thing on a plastic magarine lid.

Snow lapbook

Even though spring is around the corner I wanted to post A17's snow lapbook that he completed in January. We were able to do several experiments with snow such as measuring how fast it takes to melt in different containers and measuring snow depth and temperature. We also talked about what to wear in winter.

This is graphic organizer for other words associated with snow. He really liked doing this and I want to find more ways to add in graphic organizers.

Our words that start with S mini book.

Snow crafts: A cotton ball snowman whose eyes fell off! A foam door hanger. A snowflake made from pipecleaners . We wrapped them around a pencil to curl then tied a bunch together with string.