Homemade Valentine's Craft Tray

We're excited to be participating in our third Read + Play event!  This time 20 + bloggers have all connected a favorite Valentine's Day book with a great play, craft, or learning activity.

In the last few years we've discovered the character Pete the Cat and really enjoy this series. In his Valentine's Day book, Pete the Cat: Valentine's Day is Cool, he begins the book thinking Valentine's Day isn't cool. But as he makes Valentine's for his class, family, and friends he discovers Valentine's Day is cool.

Gingerbread Baby Playdough

There is something so magical and fun about gingerbread houses, and the boys are looking forward to decorating a real one with their Pamma later this week. But until then we've started playing with gingerbread houses in other ways and reading several gingerbread books.

Gingerbread Baby Playdough

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One of our favorite books which includes a gingerbread house is Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.

 

This spin on the classic tale tells the story of a little gingerbread baby who runs away from everyone. But instead of being eaten by the fox at the end, the little boy who made him also makes him a beautiful gingerbread house to live in. We've been rereading the book over the last few weeks and it inspired our Gingerbread Baby Playdough.

To begin with, we tweaked our basic playdough recipe to make it smell like gingerbread by adding some yummy smelling spices. We like to make a cooked playdough. so the directions below should be done by an adult as they involve using the stove. 

Bird Feeder Ornaments (As Inspired by The Night Tree)

We're really excited to participate in the Christmas Read + Play blog hop. We participated in the Halloween Read + Play collection in October with our Halloween Sticky Collage and loved all the great ideas we gained then.

For this series, over 20 bloggers have chosen a favorite holiday book and paired it with a fun play, craft, or learning activity. There are several great books and ideas to get you through the whole season! We love seeing what great, new ideas we can gain from all these other fabulous bloggers.

Bird Feeder Ornaments (As Inspired by the Night Tree)

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Several years ago I fell in love with the Christmas story The Night Tree by Eve Bunting.  It tells the story of a family who has a special Christmas tradition: every year they head into the woods to decorate a tree with popcorn, fruit, and seed balls. This tradition not only provides them with the opportunity to be together as a family but also to practice the spirit of giving by leaving treats for the animals of the forest. 

Halloween Sticky Collage

It's October, which means it's that time of year where our family is pretty excited to be getting ready for Halloween! It's definitely a top family holiday. 

Halloween Sticky Collage

This year we were excited to participate in the Halloween Read + Play blog hop. Over 25 bloggers each picked a favorite halloween book and have paired it with a fun activity or project, there are some great ideas in this series!

For our project we chose the book Pumpkin Eye by Denise Fleming. The story is filled with fabulous rhymes, a catchy rhythm, and helps the reader imagine they're on the street trick-or-treating for the evening. 

After we read the book, we created our own halloween street using the "sticky collage" approach. We call it a sticky collage because the base is contact paper, which allows little hands to stick the items to the collage without needing glue. We've enjoyed several other types of sticky collage before. 

Five Simple Crafts for Celebrating Chinese New Year

Yesterday we wound up with an unexpected day home, which gave us a whole afternoon to learn about and decorate for Chinese New Year.

Several years ago I was one of a handful of teachers from across our state who traveled in a grant funded program to China. For two weeks we traveled across the country; participating in home stays, sampling local foods, and seeing a variety of sights. As I traveled I collected many different resources for teaching children about China, and added to that collection to develop a unit I taught for several years. This week, as Big Brother's preschool class learned about Chinese New Year we pulled the unit box out at home and explored many of the items inside. As we looked for something fun to do on Friday afternoon we decided to decorate and celebrate for Chinese New Year.

All of our crafts were quick and simple, and extended from either the materials we'd been looking at or a great young-child friendly book, My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz.

25 Days of Christmas Reading

I love childrens' Christmas books. I've been collecting them since long before I was both a teacher and a mama. Last year I was eager to take our collection and start a new family tradition, and we're even more excited to continue with it this year.

25 Days of Christmas Reading

Similar to an advent calendar we try to start on December 1st. Each night, as part of our family countdown to Christmas, we choose one book from the basket we haven't read yet this year and include it in our nightly bedtime reading routine. Our collection ranges from the classics like T'was the Night Before Christmas, The Polar Express, and The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet to new age finds like Gingerbread Mouse and Tractor Mac Saves Christmas. Some are funny, like It's Christmas David while others more serious, like Welcome Comfort. And of course we don't leave out some of our personal favorites, like How The Grinch Stole Christmas and The Wild Christmas Reindeer. 

On Christmas Eve each child gets one more book to add to the collection (along with new pajamas for the whole family) and we all cuddle down to read together. By Christmas morning we've read at least (often more than) 25 holiday tales to help us celebrate the season. During the day itself we usually take some time to reread a few favorites. 

We enjoyed our first selections this evening. What are some of the holiday books you like best? Is there one you must read every year? Share a title you enjoy in the comments below and hopefully we'll get some new book ideas! 

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