Author: halverd

Materials     
Pine cones
Paper cups
Elmer’s glue
White acrylic paint
Popsicle stick for mixing
2 flat-bottomed meat trays
Silver glitter
Waxed paper
Thin Christmas ribbon or string
Glue gun
Warm, soapy water and a few rags for clean-up

Directions       
Take  your child on a nature walk to search for pine cones.  Choose ones that  are nicely formed and let them air dry overnight.  Thoroughly mix the Elmer’s glue and white acrylic paint in the paper cup, using the popsicle stick.  Your mixture should be 50 percent  glue and 50 percent paint.  Pour the glue/paint mixture into one of the meat trays.  Let your child roll the pine cone in the mixture, using his hands to gently spread the mixture over the pine cone.  You don’t have to completely cover the pine cone.  Pour a generous amount of silver glitter into the other meat tray.  Let your child roll the pine cone vigorously in the glitter, coating it all over.  Set the pine cone on the waxed paper to dry overnight.  Cut an 8-inch piece of thin Christmas ribbon and tie the ends together.  Use the glue gun to glue the string to the bottom of the cone.  When the glue cools, it’s ready to hang on your Christmas tree!

 If you prefer, you can make several of these pine cones, but don’t attach the string.  They make a lovely display just sitting in a bowl or basket with a few sprigs of evergreen or holly!

Materials     
Large sheet of green cellophane or tissue paper
Scissors
Tape
A variety of small plastic shapes, beads, play gems, etc. for decorating the tree
Light table or tray

Directions       
Cut a simple Christmas tree shape out of the green cellophane.  Use the tape to affix it to the light table.  Encourage your child to use the plastic shapes to add “ornaments” to the tree.  The decorating can be done over and over again, just by rearranging the shapes

Materials     
Tall, clear plastic bottle
Christmas table scatters (from Hobby Lobby)
Tray
Rag/washcloth
Water

Directions       
Set up a tray with a rag or washcloth, a sturdy, clear plastic bottle filled with about 2 inches of water, and the table scatters.  Make sure the opening of your bottle is big enough to easily accommodate the size of the scatters!  (A Voss water bottle is a good option.)  Invite your child to pick up the scatters individually (practicing his pincer grasp, which is important for a number of fine motor tasks as he gets older) and drop it into the bottle.  The water in the bottle deadens the sound of the scatter hitting the bottom of the bottle and also adds a very engaging element to the activity.  Young children love water!  When your child is finished adding the scatter to the bottle, dump out the water in the sink, and the scatter on the washcloth.  Invite your child to make piles of the different pieces.  We sorted red Christmas trees, green Christmas trees, little pieces of holly, and red gems.  Then refill the water and let your child do the activity again.  I can guarantee he’ll want to!

Materials       
Plastic bin
Christmas items that can withstand mouthing, such as plastic ornaments, ribbon, bows, evergreen sprigs, Christmas cookie cutters, jingle bells, etc.

Directions       
Collect the Christmas items and put them in the plastic bin.  We opted to put a handful of shredded mylar/tinsel on top of the items to encourage the children to search for what was in the tub.  Make sure none of the items you choose is a choke hazard.  You can thread a couple of jingle bells on a piece of yarn and tie the ends together, bracelet style, to make them harder to mouth.  And of course, you would carefully supervise your child’s exploration.  Feel free to pick an item out of the tub and hand it to your child.  Tell them what it’s called (a “bow”)  Let your child explore the item—squish it, put it in their mouth, throw it.  Choose another item.  Again, tell your child what it is ( an “ornament”.)  let him explore it, roll it, try to eat it, etc.  Such an activity will keep your child engaged for quite a while, and serves as an introduction to the familiar signs of the season!

 

Materials       
Green construction paper
Red construction paper
1-inch square of brown paper for trunk
Scissors
Ruler
Glue stick
White paint (optional)

Directions       
This activity is a fun way to teach your child the concept of shortest to longest. 

Cut 6  1-inch wide strips from the green paper.  Make the first strip 6 inches long, the second strip 5 inches long, the third strip 4 inches, the fourth strip 3 inches, the fifth strip 2 inches, and the sixth  strip 1 inch long. 

Have your child put all the strips on the red sheet of paper.  For younger children you may want to draw a triangle on the paper as a guide. 

• Ask your child to find the longest strip of paper and put that at the bottom of the page. 
• Now find the shortest strip.  Put that at the top of the page. 

Don’t glue anything down yet!  Look at the four strips that are left.  Let your child examine them.  Can he find the longest strip of the four?  Put that strip just above the longest strip he put down originally. 

Now ask him to find the shortest strip of the three remaining pieces. Put that one under the strip at the top.  Now there are two pieces left.  The longest of the two goes towards the bottom; the remaining piece goes on top. 

Now you can help your child adjust the strips so it looks more like a Christmas tree.  Starting at the top, use the glue stick to affix the strips to the paper.  Glue the brown square to the bottom of the longest strip to make the trunk.  If your child is interested, he can dip his pointer finger into white paint to create “snow” on his tree!

Materials       
Large sheet of white butcher paper
Large mixing bowl
Small bowl
Paper plate
Green tempera paint
Red tempera paint
Sponge
Scissors

Directions       
Lay the large bowl, upside-down, in the center of the paper and trace around it with a pencil. Lay the small bowl upside down in the middle of the circle you just traced with the larger bowl, and trace it with your pencil. 

Pour some green paint on the paper plate and have your child dip the sponge into the paint. Encourage her to “bounce” the paint covered sponge between the two circles, all the way around.  (We invited the children to try to keep the paint on the “road.”)  It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t—you’re going to cut out the wreath when it dries anyway. 

Before you cut it out, but after the green paint dries, pour a little red paint on a paper plate and show your child how to print berries on her wreath, using her fingertip to print them.  After the berries are dry, it’s ready to cut out!

                       

Materials     
Large plastic tub to hold the snow
Pristine snow
Pipettes, or eye droppers
A small, plastic jar for the green water
Green food coloring

Directions       
Soon after it snows in your area, collect some clean, untouched snow for your plastic tub.  If you can’t or don’t want to do this activity right away, you can save the snow in your freezer for later.  Fill your small jar with water and mix a few drops of food coloring into the water until it’s green.  Put 1 or 2 pipettes in the jar of green water.  Show your child how to pinch the bulb of the pipette so that it fills the shaft with green water, and then release it.  Then demonstrate picking up the pipette and pinching the bulb again, squeezing the green water into the snow. 

Using pipettes takes a lot of practice to be successful, and it may take quite a few tries to make it work.  Your child is practicing the pincer grip when he pinches the bulb of the pipette.  The pincer grip improves his ability to pick up a small object with the thumb and forefinger.  The development of a good pincer grip helps your child button, zip, hold a pencil or crayon, or snap a snap on his clothing. 

Materials       
Large plastic tub
Green Mylar shredded strips, found at any dollar-type store (often used in gift bags as a filler)
Lots of little green items to search for under the Mylar

Directions     
Empty a bag of shredded Mylar strips into your plastic tub. Collect a variety of green items from among your child’s toys. Green blocks, beads, pegs, little green dinosaurs, green cars, green crayons, etc., are all fun things to search for. Once you’ve collected your items, cover them with the mylar. Mylar is fun to handle and pick up and play with, and it can easily end up on the floor.  Encourage your child to keep the mylar in the tub while he’s searching!  Ask him if he can find three things that are green and name them. Put those things aside in a bowl.  Ask him to find three more items. Put those with the first group of items. When he’s finished, try counting how many items he’s found all together. Can he name them all?

Materials     
Contact  paper
Masking tape
A variety of green lightweight collage materials—short pieces of green yarn, small cut-up pieces of green construction paper, green feathers, green foam pieces, green stickers, green cut-up straws, green tissue paper, etc.

Instructions   
Pull the backing from a piece of contact paper and tape it securely to a flat surface, sticky side up, with the masking tape.  We used a window. Set a container of green items in front of your child.  Demonstrate that the contact paper is sticky by taking your child’s hand and pressing his/her fingers on the paper. 

Pick up a green item and show your child how to press it on the contact paper.  Give your child something green and encourage him/her to stick it up.  It may take a few tries to get the idea. 

I’ve found that younger children (under 12 mos.) like to pull items off the contact paper as much as they like to put them on!  Either way, your child is exercising those fine-motor muscles, practicing skills of persistence and focus, and having fun doing it!       

Ingredients     
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk
½ cup honey
1 large ripe banana
6 ounces spinach
 ½ cup unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions       
Preheat oven to 350° and line a muffin pan with paper liners. We used green foil liners for Green Week! 

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and combine, using a whisk. 

Melt the butter. Blend melted butter, spinach, and all the other wet ingredients in a blender until thoroughly pureed.

Pour the green pureed mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and blend until combined.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 18–22 minutes, or until muffin tops are firm but not quite browning.

Cool before serving.

For more adventurous palates, you may want to add chopped walnut pieces and/or dried cherries to the batter before baking. These muffins were a hit with the kids—and such a great way to get them to eat spinach!