Tot School-Winter

This week our theme was winter.  I went back and forth whether to do a straight winter theme or try to fit in some Christmas activities as well.  I decided to do the later and we had a great week of activities and crafting!  Of course we still have a few Christmas crafts (Pinterest Christmas :) to do but it was a great start.

On Monday we started with a play dough Christmas tree.  We made ornaments for the tree and garland.  Mara decorated the star and had fun rolling the balls for the ornaments.  

The play dough was forgotten about mid day when she discovered these stickers in her Christmas goodie bag from Santa.  She loves stickers and always want to put them everywhere!  I wasn't planning this activity but it quickly evolved to avoid stickers all over our furniture.  I drew a quick tree outline and let her put the ornaments on it.  I guess it was also good reinforcement from our earlier activity.

In the afternoon we did two more activities making some jingle bell shakers and a reindeer ornament.  The shakers were a hit as she loves music.  The reindeer was again a craft kit that came with her Santa goodie bag.  We used glue to adhere all the pieces together and eventually hung it on the tree once it dried.

Tuesday we got back to our bible verses.  This one was a snow craft where I gave her a sheet of paper with some contact paper in the middle of it.  I also gave her cotton balls and cut up Q-tips.  We read the verse and then I let her create her own snow scene.  She did really good with this and got very precise with the Q-tips lining them all up.

In the afternoon we baked Christmas cookie bars.  Mara has really turned into a little baker and loves helping in the kitchen.  She gets out her stool and likes to help stir.

On Wednesday we decorated gingerbread houses.  My mom sent these sticker kits.  They were pretty neat despite the massive amounts of glitter on them.  I mean glitter was everywhere.  I'm not sure if they were cleaner than the traditional houses in that sense, but it was much better for Mara as she is really good with sticking stickers.  

In the afternoon we did a few do a dots.  I printed a Christmas tree and a wreath.  I saw a ton of improvement with her dots this time.  She was very exact with her placement and was adamant about filling in the entire dot.  

Thursday was a little slower and all we did was a hand print tree.  I traced her hands five times and then cut them out.  We then used paste to assemble the tree.  Red markers were used for decorations and we even added some glitter for adornment.

Friday we finished our week of stickers with you guessed it...more stickers!  Again my mom had sent Mara some snowflake stickers so I just grabbed a sheet of paper and let her design her own snow scene.  She loves this simple type of activity and has recently gotten really good at peeling the backing off the stickers herself, another testament in fine motor skills.

Next week we're on to music.  I don't have a ton planned.  Heck I only have two days of activities down but that's ok.  Josh's parents come into town so we're going to take it slow.  Music is also a part of our everyday lives.  Mara has her own basket of instruments that is played with daily and recently was given a mp3 player that she adores.