Well, I can see that I will most likely be doing monthly wrap up posts from now on instead of weekly ones. Life is just too busy...... We have been doing lots of fun stuff for Christmas, but blogging about it just hasn't been on the top of my priority list.
I heard about "Truth in the Tinsel" about halfway through December. We did a modified version of the 12 day plan, but I still feel like we were able to hit the most important aspects of the Christmas story, and Punkin really enjoyed reading from Daddy's Bible and making the crafts. I will definitely do this again next year....from the beginning. We hung our ornaments on our banister instead of on a tree.
Misc.
Gingerbread / Cookies
She played a lot with her Candy Land Gingerbread game.
We continue to do Starfall almost every day. Her favorite activity this month was the Gingerbread making one.
Matching Christmas cookie shapes (from Musings of Me)with pictures on them to the jar that had the correct begining sound. She is getting so good at this skill, it amazes me!
Gingerbread Memory Game (Matching shapes) - She FINALLY caught on to the concept of "Memory."
Ornament Addition
(From the Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree Pack at Homeschool Creations)
I printed these from Prekinders. First I had Punkin put like ornaments on the tree, such as all the yellow, then all the red, then all the ones with stripes, then all the ones with dots, then all the ones with LITTLE dots, etc.
After that, I started to tell her to find certain ornaments on the tree. For instance, "Find the yellow ornament with the skinny stripes." Then, she wanted to tell ME which ornaments to find.
Punkin counted the ornaments on the trees and put the star on top that had the matching number. This came from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Punkin had to dot the numbers red and the letters blue. It was a good way to tell if she knew the difference between a number and a letter. She did this with ease. I printed this also from the Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree Pack.
Gluing shapes onto the correct spot on the tree. This was way too easy for Punkin, but I needed something to keep her occupied one day, and since she loves glue.....
Punkin enjoyed getting messy to make her handprint tree.
Do Dot Tree from Confessions of a Homeschooler
This idea was all over blogland / Pinterest. I actually saw the idea for a felt tree first HERE.
I saw this idea for an Ornament I Spy game over at The Activity Mom and I knew I had to try it with Punkin. I took pictures of individual ornaments on the tree and put them into a table format in Word.
Then, Punkin searched the tree to "spy" each ornament.
She crossed each one off as she found it. Boy did she have a blast with this!
Color By Shape page from 1+1+1=1 (Punkin added some of our letter ornaments for more "sparkle" I guess!)
Punkin spent a long time working at lining up Christmas lights in ABC order. I realized that though she knows her ABC's, we need to work more on ABC order.
Stockings
We did this candy cane / stocking matching activity last year, but she understood the concept a lot better this year and did it with ease....matching two colors at a time. I can't remember where I printed it from.
She attempted to do a stocking lacing but stopped after one side and declared it a necklace instead! :) I printed this from the Christmas Pack at Creative Learning Fun. (But when I tried to find it I got a message saying the blog has been removed.)
Christmas Trees / Ornaments
(From the Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree Pack at Homeschool Creations)
Stockings
Santa
I love making handprint crafts with Punkin. I got this idea from Meet the Dubiens.
Punkin counted white magnetic pom poms onto "Santa hats" and then we did some addition practice with them as well. I got this idea from HERE.
We made Santa Hat treats out of Nilla Wafers, strawberries, and whipped cream. Yum! This idea came from Reading Confetti.
Reindeer
Reindeer Grid Game from Prekinders
When I taught first grade, we always made these hand and foot reindeer, so of course, I had to make one with Punkin, too! (Actually, Grandma helped her mostly with this one!)
She had a reindeer sandwich for lunch one day.
And Rudolph Pancakes for breakfast on Chrismas Eve.
I was going to have her do some reindeer graphing, but as I was tending to Firecracker, she took the dot markers and just began dotting each column the matching color. Oh well. She made her own activity out of it!
Candy Canes
Button Candy Cane Magnets (got the idea from HERE)
We made candy canes from pipe cleaners and pony beads.
One day while eating what we call "fruit tape" (Fruit Roll Ups?) I had this idea to use it to make a candy cane. So, that's what we did!
OTHER STUFF
We made birthday cakes for Jesus!
Punkin had fun painting with Christmas colors.
She asked for her magnetic pom poms one evening and spent a long time arranging them.
Punkin got on a kick of drawing on her Aquadoodle mat.
One afternoon, Punkin asked me for some cotton balls and some glue. She had gotten a coffee filter out of our craft cupboard and declared she was going to make a cloud....and she did!
She came up with this innovation all by herself. She was putting her game piece shapes through a paper towel tube so they landed in the bumbo seat below.
And she has been drawing lots of snowmen lately.
Practicing her letters in her writing binder.
After making our ornaments out of salt dough one day, I let her play with the rest of the dough. She made lots of "snowballs."
I ordered most of our Christmas presents online this year, and Punkin always had fun playing with the boxes they were shipped in.
OTHER STUFF
Whew! What a fun month. We will focus on snow and snowman stuff in January.
I have linked up to Tot School and Preschool Corner.

What a busy month - seems she had a lot of fun with all the activities! Love the Rudolph pancakes - my daughter was watching me read this and wants me to make them for her.
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