Posted in Christmas Books
Can it already be the 2nd half of December? Noooooo...the time is going too fast!
Well, as you might have read in an earlier post about the sickness in our home, we didn't get to all of our Christmas book reading last week. The Country Christmas Angel actually was read later, but we still didn't do the drawing of the angel, which at any other time, I think the girls will LOVE. So, hopefully, I will pull out angel crafts on another day to do!
I will say that we have several fun days planned with Nana next week, since she is off work. So, a few of these things may or may not get done! We'll see! But, we are planning a baking day, a craft day and then a day at the mall...so I will of course post pictures of all the crafts we make on our craft day! I have been wanting to do this with the girls again, they remember the last time we did this and BEG me to have another "fun craft day" again!
So, here are the books up for this week! A fun and exciting week ahead!
One of my favorite Christmas books that is all for FUN is The Polar Express. I used to read this book each year to my kindergarten classes...and now that there is a movie, it is even more exciting! There are some fabulous ideas online to go with this book...
HERE is one of many units written for this book.
Last year we made a train out of construction paper, glued it on some dark colored paper and painted snow on our page with q-tips. Painting with q-tips is always a fun craft!
I did get the movie for this book at Target for $5, so I'm excited about that! I really want to watch it one day, cuddled under big blankets and drinking hot chocolate.
Oh, and I also bought each child a big jingle bell to give them on this day...we will tie red ribbon through it and hang them on the tree!
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The Legend of the Candy Cane was a book that I wrote a unit for last year...we spent a week with this wonderful book last year! I would at least like to read it and do a fun candy cane craft with it this year!
HERE is the unit found on homeschool share with lots of ideas!
And, I'm so excited to share that lapbooking/notebooking ideas have just recently been added for this book!! Take a peek, there are a LOT of fabulous ideas for this book that we can do! I think we will specifically do the Christmas Candy Cane rhyme cut/paste, Psalm 23 copywork, dozens math lesson, and size order candy canes. We will see if we get to all that! But, I'm telling ya, as soon as we are done reading our books each morning, my girls are asking - what do you have for us to color today? Are there any more sheets for us to do? hee hee hee, they eat this stuff up!
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The Friendly Beasts is a book that goes through the words of an old English Christmas Carol. This particular version is illustrated by Tomie DePaola and I love the simple pictures in this book! Elizabeth Foss mentions a cute way to do copywork for this book...either copy a picture of each of the animals from this story, or have the children draw each animal. And under each animal write that animal's verse from the song. The song goes through the donkey carrying the mother up to Bethlehem, the cow giving Him the manger for a bed, the sheep giving Him wool for a blanket, and the dove cooing Him to sleep.
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The Pine Tree Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. If you are not familiar with Mrs. Higg's parables - you really should check them out! The Pumpkin Patch Parable and the Parable of the Easter Lily are 2 of my favorites for those holidays! So, when I saw this book I had to get it! This would be a lovely day to do a Christmas tree craft!
Here is one Christmas tree craft we have done in the past...using the child's handprint cut out in green, make your tree. Let the child decorate with sequins, buttons, anything you want to use for ornaments.
This year, I think I'd like to make this Christmas tree craft! Well, I can't get the picture to copy and paste...so, basically you cut green rectangles at different lengths. Glue the shortest on top, progressively getting longer towards the bottom of the tree. Then, a brown little trunk can be made too. We may use q-tips to paint different colored ornaments on the tree. I will post pictures! :)
I'd also like to make THIS snack that I've seen 2 places now! Yum, doesn't this look like FUN! You use the waffle cones, green icing and m&m's for ornaments!
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Mary's Treasure Box is a new book for me. I found it at the used book store and could not walk out without it. It is such a precious, sweet story of the mother of Jesus and all her treasures. Some of Mary's treasures are hay from the manger, wool from the shepherds, gifts from the magi. What are our treasures? I am thinking of reading the verse about Mary "pondering all these things in her heart" and talking about what things we should ponder in our hearts - like scriptures!
Also, HERE is a beautiful craft that was entered for Dawn's homemade gifts list a few days ago. I'm not sure which day I would do it, but I really love the Mary one a lot! I also love the angels! Maybe we could do the angels for our homemade nativity...or on the days that we read the stories about the angels!
Aren't these just beautiful? Update: I have bought the materials to do this craft, hopefully we will get it done next week!
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