Christmas Crafting

We had school the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and my assistant was not going to be there on Tuesday. So I decided while I was all by my lonesome to do not 1, not 2, but 3 crafts with my Kinders! Luckily, the crafts came out cute and the day passed by quickly. Here is a snap of the crafts that we did:

I stayed late on Monday and took some things home to prep. When the kids came in, they had the classic Rudolph craft materials laid out and ready to go. I think I have one of these I made at my parent's house somewhere :) To prep, I cut a brown triangle out for each child. They I used my Fiskar circle punch to cut out two black circles and 1 red circle for each child. Last, I gave them a half of sheet of manila/light brown paper to trace their hands.

To assemble: Have students glue down the black eyes and red nose in the right spot. Have them trace hands on manila paper and cut out. Glue one at each corner of the short side of the triangle.

And when they fail at tracing their hands and cutting...you get lots of funny "horns." If you look closely at my picture, you will see a few sets of horns.

In the past, I have also mounted these with the sentence: "Rudolph has a red nose." Very easy and cute!!

The next craft we made were "snow people." I wanted something giant and funny to look at in the hallway, and these did the trick :) I used my same Fiskar circle punch to cut out 2 black eyes, 2 pink cheeks, and 3 black buttons per child. I did end up buying the smaller punch after we did this craft, and I think next year I will make the eye circles smaller.

I used a small and large dinner plate to trace the white circle for the body and head. I cut brown paper into long and short skinny strips for the arms. I cut 2 inch black strips for the legs....and I traced out shoes on black paper, bows, and hats....and orange triangles for the noses! Next year I will make the arm strips skinnier.

We took this project very slow. I had them put on the eyes and cheeks and draw the mouths first. I also let them stick the bow or hat on at this time. Next, I showed them how to glue on the head to the body and add the buttons. I also showed them how to glue together the short/long strips of brown paper to make arms, and then how to attach the arms by gluing them to the back.

The last step was to glue on the black strip legs and accordion fold them....and we added shoes for an extra touch of cuteness! All of the kids loved the snow people, and lots of teachers have told me how much they love to see them in the hallway :)

And then there was this guy, who added teeth:

The last craft we made that day was a curled-paper winter tree. I cut out green triangles, brown rectangles, and tonnsss of 2 inch x 1 inch green rectangles. I showed them how to glue down the brown rectangle to make the trunk, and we added tree details with our brown crayon. Then they glued the triangle on top of the trunk (I told them to leave room for the star at the top). They used their pencil to halfway curl their green rectangles, then glued them down to the trees in rows. The last step was me calling them over one by one to add glitter stars and snowflakes :) they were very excited about the glitter!

Too help keep the calm, I just passed out these little plates full of the strips they needed out all around the room. I think I put 2 at each table...I showed how to just take a "pinch" at a time and grab more as needed, and how to pass it around and share. It worked out really well!

I was really, really tired after all of the crafts we did BUT I am very pleased that our hallway was decorated for Christmas/winter before we left for Thanksgiving break!

And in the meantime, this guy is back:

Instead of buying the Elf on the Shelf sweaters, I bought these from Michaels, "Holiday Sweater Ornaments." I pulled the little hangar out, and they totally fit him! You can find a set of four here.

May your days be short until Christmas break and your coffee be strong!