A gift from Creative Nanny

A few years ago I made an Advent Calendar Activity Book for my great niece.
I set it up so that she could do one activity a day but you can really use these files anyway that you choose.The files consist of simple finger plays, songs, games and activities that can be adjusted to fit each age.
For example: On the coloring pages, if you have older children you might in addition to letting them color the pages let them use cotton for Santa's beard and markers or glitter or rhinestones to decorate.

On the games, you might want to print them out on card stock and laminate them so that you can keep a file of holiday games and activities that you can use over and over again.
Simply laminating your game pieces will save a lot of wear and tear on them. I set the matching games up so that the backs can be used for both games. You can also simply print out the pieces without backs or print out the backs and use your own stickers to create a game.

When you do snowman soup, I have included the graphics so that if you would like to make snowman soup for a gift you can do that too.

On the finge rplays I have added simple graphics so that if you want to print out an extra page and cut out the graphics, you can turn it into a counting game too. It adds one more dimension to the fun.

On the make a snowman, it is fun to print this out on a magnetic sheet and then you can play with it on the refrigerator all winter long.

There is really no right or wrong way to do this as long as you enjoy them. These are simply my suggestions of what worked best for me.

I would suggest you download all the pages, print them out and read through them.
You don’t need a lot of extra things to do the activities but you probably want to look through the pages and figure out what you need so you can be sure you have everything in one place.

I took a 3 ring notebook, printed out each page and slipped it inside a photo protector sheet. That way it was easy for me to see what we had and it protected pages from getting torn up. If I needed extra supplies, I just tucked it into the sleeve of the page.

I divided mine up into Songs, Games, Art projects and Finger plays.
You could also divide it up by Themes. Reindeer, Snowman, Gingerbread Man, Santa.

I have also included some Hanukkah pages and some religious themes, so you can choose whether or not you want to download those.
With or without them, you will have enough to keep you busy.
There is nothing like sharing the joy of Christmas with children!

Merry Christmas

The Creative Nanny

The majority of art used in these projects is from http://www.pccrafter.com/
They have wonderful graphics and ideas and I highly encourage you to check them out.
You won't be sorry.

Here are the projects: You should be able to click on the links and go directly to the page where you can print your projects.

Christmas Fun!

Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer
Song and Fingerplay

Reindeer Hokey Pokey
Song and Dance


Color the Gingerbread Man


Color Santa

Read the book: The Night Before Christmas

Color the Snowman

Decorate the Christmas Tree


Make a Snowman



The stockings were hung by the Chimney with Care

Stockings

Make Reindeer Food

Reindeer Ornament with Hand

Santa Match Game

Christmas Match card backs

Christmas Match Game

Snowman Soup

Snowman Soup for someone else


Tic Tac Toe Board

Tic Tac Toe Pieces



Gingerbread Man Fingerplay

Gingerbread Man Song and Dance

Five Little Christmas Trees


Eight Little Reindeer

Five Little Snowmen

If you are a Christian and you celebrate the birth of Christ, here are some simple activities related to the Nativity.

Mary and Joseph Paper Dolls

Color Baby Jesus

Angels we have heard on high

Away in a Manger

Pumpkin Songs, Fingerplays and Books

Here are some songs, fingerplays and books about Pumpkins from the crafty and creative Kari Ewest. Kari will be featured here starting in January with her Alphabet Express.

The Five Little Pumpkins is one of my all time favorites.

Five little Pumpkins/ One hand up
Sitting on a gate
The first one said Point to thumb
My, it's getting late."
The second one said, Pointer Finger
There are witches in the air."
The third one said/ Middle Finger
"But we don't care."
The fourth one said, /Ring finger
"We'll run and run and run."
The fifth one said/Pinky
"Isn’t Halloween fun!"
"Whoooo" went the wind
And out went the light pause/………and then big clap
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight! /Roll arms

I'm a Little Pumpkin Sung to: "I'm a Little Teapot"

I'm a little pumpkin Round and stout

Packed full of seeds that you can scoop out

When I get all carved upThen I'll be

The cutest Jack-o-Lantern you ever did see.

Three Little Pumpkins Sung to: "Ten Little Indians"
One little, 2 little, 3 little pumpkins
Rolled down the lane like funny bumpkins
Had their faces carved & thought they were something's
Funny Halloween jack-o-lanterns!

For your convenience, I have included links to the books below on Amazon.com

Check out these great books by Gail Gibbons


Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall


Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson and Shmuel Thaler

Pumpkin Baby by Jane Yolen and Susan Mitchell

Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper

Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis

Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell

Happy Halloween!

Turkey Puppet

This is a little puppet I made with my now 9 year old when she was 4. When she was 4, she went to Pre School 2 days a week but Monday was always craft day for us and even now when we get together we love to be Creative.

This puppet is perfect to take an on airplane or in the car or just about anywhere and we enjoyed using it with lots of Thanksgiving fingerplays and songs.

I bought cheap little stretch gloves for $1 ( You can find these at most discount stores or Dollar Stores. I made a pattern with card stock and then I just cut two sets of feathers out of felt and fringed the edges a little.

My gloves came with little cardboard inserts and I just covered them with aluminum foil and slid them back inside so that the fingers didn't get glued together.

Then we glued the feathers on. You might even be able to find felt that already has the sticky backing on it so all you have to do is stick them on but I used a hot glue gun. I am sure you could also use any kind of fabric glue. I used clothespin clips to hold the feathers in place until they were dry and then we flipped it over and did the same thing on the other side.

Don't forget a beak and a gobbler.

Then I drew on details and let her use the glitter paint to decorate.

We finished with a googly eye. There is nothing like a googly eye to bring a project to life.

Here is a fingerplay and a song to get you started. A google search for "Turkey Fingerplays" will give you lots more!"

I have a turkey, big and fat.(Make a fist with one hand-thumb Out for turkey's head)

He spreads his tail and walks like that.(Attach "tail" by spreading Out fingers of other hand and join together)

His daily corn he would not miss.(Poke with thumb at floor)

And when he talks, it sounds like this:Gobble Gobble Gobble

My favorite Turkey song that I remember from my childhood:

A turkey sat on a barnyard fence and he sang this sad sad tune.

Thanksgiving day is coming gobble gobble gobble. I'm afraid I will be eaten soon.

Oh gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble gobble gobble. I would like to run away.

Gobble, gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble, I don't like Thanksgiving day!