Posted in Books, Literacy Tuesdays

Merry Christmas Splat (& Seymour)

Last night’s book was Merry Christmas Splat.

9780060831608

In the story Splat writes his letter to Santa and then worries that he has not been good enough.  We used this as an opportunity to write our letters to Santa.  You can find many different templates online for letters to Santa.  I let the girls pick one out and printed 3 copies.  We talked about what you write in a good Santa letter.  Kaitlyn wrote hers independently, I wrote for Eileen as she dictated to me, and we tried to get something out of Michael (without too many suggestions).

Eileen's santa letter 2

Michael's santa letter

Kaitlyn's santa letter

I wanted to start something a bit different this year so I combined two ideas on interest.  I picked up some large clear plastic Christmas balls at Michaels and each child put their handprint on a ball.  I then wrote their name on the ball and the year 2012.  If you are doing this make sure to use permanent marker or it will wipe off (my scrapbooking markers wiped off too easily).  Next was the tricky part.  I folded and rolled up a copy of their letters to Santa and put it in each of their balls.  Of course we made a copy to mail to Santa as well.  All that was left was to add some ribbon so we can hang them on the tree.  I am having trouble getting a good picture of them so these will have to do for now.  Once our tree is up I will try and take better pictures with them hanging on the tree.

IMG_3585

IMG_3588

Posted in Books, Craft Thursdays

A Fancy Christmas


One of the series that many little girls love is Fancy Nancy.  Last year for Christmas Kaitlyn recieved Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas.

Nancy’s favourite time of year is Christmas because everything that is normally dull and boring becomes fancy.  Last summer she spent all of her birthday money to buy the most extravagant and fancy topper for the Christmas tree and finally can put it on the top of the tree.  While waiting for Grandpa to arrive she is playing with her dog and they accidently knock over the tree breaking the angel.  Nancy is devastated but then Grandpa helps her make a new special ornament that can become a family heirloom.  A cute story with familiar characters and a good message about family traiditions.

The activity for this one was very obvious.  I got a large variety of items out of our craft bins, everything from pipcleaners and pom poms, to paint, plates and every sticky, sparkling or sticker that we have.  First the girls painted their paper plates (both sides) and then I let them loose to decorate them.  The only thing they needed help with were making the holes for the pipecleaners and ribbon (which are difficult to see in the pictures. Kaitlyn’s is a star and Eileen decided her was a face.