Posted in Christmas Books

I'm in the "final stages" (LOL) of working on these lists. I'm going through my lists and deciding which day I want to read which book, then finding the craft or activity to go with each book. The reason I'm trying to decide it all beforehand is so that I can wrap all the presents and have them in the right order!  I do hope this is helpful for someone else, seeing all these wonderful books and the activities I have found. But, I'm also putting it on here for my own benefit as I try and get my planning done, I need to get it all together.

So, here is the order of the books as we will do them. Also, are the activities listed with each book that we will do each day.

This is WEEK 1 of December. (note: Saint Nicholas day is Dec. 6th --not sure if this is what the day is technically called or not, but I will have a new post with several St. Nicholas titles in it and the ideas I hope to try on that day.)

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This will be the first book we open, so we can read it aloud throughout the month of December.

One Wintry Night was written by Ruth Graham Bell. This is a longer book that would definitely be a book to read through the entire month of December. I picked this one up when I found it on sale at the Christian book store recently and am excited to share it this year! I'm hoping this will be our bedtime reading for December.

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Yet another book I found at the used book store that I am excited about is by Jan Brett. Her version of The Night Before Christmas is beautiful, of course! Don't you just love ALL of her books? Since this is such a widely known and famous poem, I plan to find several versions of this book (I think I have 3-4 on my shelves alone.) and compare the illustrations. I know for me, the Jan Brett version will be one of my favorites! But I would like for the children to see the other versions too. Elizabeth suggests making this poem your poetry memorization for the month.

For our activities on this day to go with this book, I recently stumbled across the homeschool share unit on this book. There are TONS of lapbooking/notebooking ideas listed there and they are fabulous! Take a look HERE. I plan to do the reindeer activities - coloring the reindeer cards, putting them in ABC order, Santa Word Search (Hannah loves word searches) and the draw Santa page. There really are so many great ideas to use with this book, take a peek and see what you like!

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This is the Star -- here is what Elizabeth Foss says about this book on her website. (I have linked you to her entire Christmas/Advent study.)

 This is the Star  by Joyce Dunbar is a lovely story of the birth of Jesus that builds on itself. The book works well as a read-aloud because it is rhythmic and employs rich, poetic language and gorgeous illustrations that hold the older listener while younger listeners absorb the story. (This one pictured is not the one I have, but same author, mine is a red cover.) The day we read this, I think we will do a star craft - I haven't searched for one yet, so if you find one, please let me know! Also, any other books that are about the star we will read on this day to.

Star Craft:

See pictures HERE of a star craft. Paint popsicle sticks any color you like, glue together in a star shape. We may add glitter to ours as well! Then you can add ribbon and hang on your tree! This is a simple craft that the girls will love! So, that makes us all happy - simple for mom, paint and glue for the girls!

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For our activity for this one, I am going to discuss more musical instruments with my children. I have been wanting to start on the Story of the Orchestra, so I think we will glance through this book and just have a brief overview of musical instruments. I would like to see which ones the girls can name already...and see which ones they don't know yet. This book, The Story of the Orchestra, is fabulous! Many FIAR moms recommend this book, and I also used it when I taught music at the Christian school I taught at last year. It is a great resource for primary children to introduce them to the world of music. This book also comes with a listening cd, I think we will listen to some of the various instruments too, especially the percussion section to tie in with the Little Drummer Boy.

Oh, and while we're at it, I'm going to pull out the video to this book (if I can find it, otherwise I'll pick it up from somewhere) and watch it today!

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The Legend of the Poinsetta is another one in the Real Learning Advent Unit. Little Lucida did not have a gift for the Baby Jesus. All she could find was a handful of weeds. But because she gave from her heart, the weeds turned into beautiful red flowers. This is a story about the Christmas plant - the poinsettia. I think this would be a lovely week to take a poinsettia to someone! Maybe mamaw in the nursing home? Maybe a neighbor?

HERE is a page about the poinsettia with a craft as well.  

HERE is another page all about poinsettias, with crafts and links on it. She also mentions the Mexican legend that the poinsettia was known as the Christmas plant because it reminded them of the star of Bethlehem.

Use THIS poinsettia coloring page and print out several poinsettias for your child to paint. Another idea was to use torn tissue red tissue paper to glue on the poinsettia.

THIS is a REALLY neat ABC coloring book for Christmas. The picture for P happens to be one of the prettiest poinsettia coloring pages I found. Some of them just weren't so pretty. Anyway, I love all the pictures in this coloring book...but you could print off the P page and just cut out the poinsettia part.

Here is an idea that Elizabeth had for the poinsettia:

Narrate what you learned about Christmas plants and make a poinsettia covered brad-book for your lapbook.  Copy  a poinsettia picture from de Paola’s book, laminate it, trace it onto several pages of lined paper.  Write narrations on the lined paper and “bind” them behind the laminated illustration with a brad.

Of course I also plan to bring home a lovely poinsettia plant for our table. I think we will also DRAW a poinsettia flower in our nature journals!