Christmas Preschool

This week it is my turn to teach our cooperative preschool. Of course the topic is Christmas, since this is our last week of the year. At the end of the week I get to focus on baby Jesus and the nativity, but our lesson for Monday was about Santa.

So first we used our hands to make some cute hand print Santas. I always intend to take pictures of the kids while we are doing the activities, but I just get too busy! So here are Jacob and Ephraim after the fact, with the hand print Santas they made.

I painted the thumb and lower portion of their hand red to make the Santa hat, then I painted the rest white. I added the flesh colored paint and faces after the hand prints had dried. Then we finished it off with a pom-pom. I think they are adorable! Jacob came home from Kindergarten and wanted to make one, so we did!

As a nice gift for the parents, we also made hand print snowman ornaments. I painted the kids' hands white and then had them squeeze a round ball ornament in their hand. Since our kids are only three, that is where their involvement ended. Later in the day I added faces, hats, arms and buttons to the snowmen and I think they turned out to be absolutely adorable!

I had extra ball ornaments, so I got to make Jacob an ornament too. Then I wrote their name and the year on the palm of the hand. I can't wait to give these to the kids on Thursday.

I also wanted to do a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament for Amelia. So I painted her hand purple, which she DID NOT LIKE. I don't know why I did not anticipate how hard it would be to get her handprint on an ornament! Once her hand was painted, of course she curled it into a fist. So I had one heck of a time getting her handprint on the ornament. I must have wiped it off three or four times.

 When I finally got a decent handprint, I filled it in with a little extra paint. Then I added some ribbon. I think it turned out cute. I am going to use my new Silhouette Cameo to cut some vinyl to put "Amelia's First Christmas, 2011"on the back of the ornament. Can you believe how small her hand is in comparison to her brothers?