Christmas Tree Day~

Today we read two of our favorite Christmas books:

The Parable of the Pine Tree and A Wish to be a Christmas Tree~

We brought our art supplies out to Savannah's and worked on this~

We actually strung some beads on the pipe cleaners first and then curled into trees 

attaching them to snow doilies~

EK and SJ did great using the low temp glue guns 

to attach their pom poms, sequins, and buttons, then helped their brothers.

I helped these two and it was an adventure~

You know Evie... always up for a big project!!!

I brought a couple of books for EK and SJ to read with me ...

EK~ Merry Christmas Amelia Bedelia~

The text may have been a little simple for EK but let me say she and SJ

loved the literal/figures of speech.

Great fun was had by both!!!

SJ's book was Henry and Mudge and the Tall Tree House~

Her face says it all... Mom! I can read this all by myself!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

Christmas Tree Game & {GLITTER}~

Twitter is sometimes my best friend as I follow lots of homeschool moms and bloggers and they post great ideas.

I happened upon a great one this morning and added it to our morning plans.

I chose two books to read today:

The Clown of God and Cobweb Christmas.

In order to relate them to our game for the day we decided the juggling balls were like Christmas ornaments in The Clown of God and relation to other book to come.

I printed everyone a Christmas Tree sheet and grabbed small wooden cubes/smelly markers~

 Each one made their own color die using cube and markers then they rolled to color ornaments/gifts.

Just something more fun about coloring with smelly markers.

I had the big two complete the math section on their own and did individually with the boys {EC only named her colors}.

You should have seen their faces when I had them bubble cut around the tree/gifts and glue into their journals...

THEN I showed them the GLITTER. :)

Evie lit up like a Christmas tree!

In Cobweb Christmas, spiders decorate the old woman's tree with webs and it glistens like tinsel.

I had each one swirl glue {webs} all over their trees~

and sprinkle glitter all over {with close supervision} their tree.

They are dry and here they are~

 They LOVE them and are forever tucked in their journals

{so they can rub their fingers on them every time they open their journals and I can find glitter all over the floor :)

I mean cherish them always.

{Disclaimer: the smelly markers are NOT washable}

so today when I take Rosie to dr, all my littles will have marker stains all over their hands because it will not come off and they look like ragamuffins. :)

All for a great day's fun!!!

Cranberry Christmas~

Today our selection was Cranberry Christmas and just like our Thanksgiving one, it is one of favs.

They especially loved the page of Mr. Whiskers Christmas tree decorated with shells~

 Yesterday I pinned a cute Christmas tree craft and thought I might use it sometime... today!

They loved the Christmas tree page so much I knew we would make our own.

I hot glued three craft sticks into triangles with a brown one for trunk.

They crumbled green tissue paper squares and glued to three sides.

We added colored pieces for ornaments and it just so happens I picked up a jar of sequins this weekend...

there were SHELLS in there!

Made 5 littles super happy!

As they dried on the table, I had an idea to add their photos to make them super sweet for years to come~

They are going to have a fit when they see them hanging on the tree after rest!!!~

Easy and cute!!! My kind of craft!!!

Christmas Trees~

Seems we have many books with Christmas tree themes and one was chosen today so I decided we needed to research why we have them at Christmas.

We grabbed the IPad and read a few things about it and sang Oh Christmas Tree together.

Then we found an adorable song on YouTube called The Dancing Christmas Tree Song!

They LOVED it... we also did a little dancing to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree until things got a little crazy~

Today we read two books:

The Pine Tree Parable and The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree~

 Both so sweet in their own way.

I had sequencing sheet of getting a Christmas tree and we colored, cut, discussed, and sequenced into their journals.

A kind of relaxed morning but very special all the same.

Hoping to take them Christmas tree hunting this week!!!

A Wish to be a Christmas Tree~

Today we read this sweet story...

A Wish to be a Christmas Tree.

Each day when we read I allow the kids to take a picture walk discussing the illustrations and predict story line.

As we read they fill in words I leave out working on rhyming and comprehension.

 One of favorite things to do is listen for a lesson for life in the story...

Key phrases today~ 

"You are special to us every day of the year,

we would be sad if you weren't always near."

"it wasn't as important to be a Christmas tree,

but to always be the best friend you could be."

HUGE lessons for ALL of us!

I have EK and SJ write about this on an index card and we glue to the back of their art.

Next was our FAV part of the day... ART!

I sketched a loopy tree for them to paint with Qtips.

Then we added the ornaments: foam shapes, sequins, more slick paint, and stickers~

 Everyone was super diligent so they could do more and more and more! 

Beautiful Christmas Trees~

One other thing I do each year is gather small art projects from Target dollar spot or Michaels for the girls to work on~

 They really love making them together and hanging them on their tree in their room~

 A Great Christmas school day!