Gingerbread Play House

I had a large box laying around, so today we made it into a gingerbread house for Adeline and her friends.  I covered the box with brown packing paper and then glue gunned on lot of goodies.  Adeline loved putting all her animals into the house.  We talked about "in the house" and the names of the animals as they went "in". 

 I think she will enjoy using some new language with her house this Christmas season.

Christmas Swirls

Christmas is full of sensory experiences.  Today I pull out some potato starch and we made goop.  You can use corn starch as well.  I just found a bunch of potato starch on clearance, so I stocked up.  My kids love this activity we do it often.  Add water to make a thick substance and add a few drops of food coloring.  Start swirling.  This uses some great fine motor skills.

 It starts to get ugly after a bit but just add a few more drops of color and your off again.

Christmas Fine Motor

We had a piece of packing foam that we covered with cotton balls to make snow.   I glue gunned some Christmas trees to tooth picks and we "poked" in trees.

This was a simple fine motor activity with a Christmas theme.

Christmas Sensory Play

We are starting to think about Christmas and winter.  Today I am sharing some of the sensory activities that we have been playing in lately.

First is a bucket of grain filled with snowflakes and trees.  I used grain as our base but you could use many different items such as rice, beans or popcorn.  We talked about the trees and colors while using some different utensils to dig.  

Second, is a pan filled with salt.  Salt is a great sensory experience and can be used as snow.

Adeline really got into hiding her hand in the salt.

Christmas tree ornaments;
We made ornaments using salt, cardboard and buttons.

Holiday Sorting and Matching

Many concepts can be reinforced with matching and sorting.  Today I created five different matching or sorting activities that practice different concepts.

Our first activity is Turkey matching or sorting shapes using milk caps.
http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/PDF/whotooktheturkey.pdf

The second activity is color matching snowman using pompoms.
http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/PDF/cbsm.pdf

The third is matching upper case letters to lower case letter snowflakes.  I used foam circles so that I could write on them.
http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/PDF/snowflakesongs.pdf

The fourth activity is matching number penguins.
http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/PDF/fivepenguins.pdf

 The fifth matching activity is matching buttons on a Christmas Tree.
http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/PDF/treepuzzle.pdf

Hope these learning activities make your holidays a little more fun.