Reindeer – Mommy's Lessons

Reindeer is Hungry

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Mrs. Malo

Our book for day 2 of our countdown was Reindeer’s First Christmas.

This is a cute tale of a reindeer who visits The Cat in the Hat’s Christmas Party but then has quite the adventure on his way home for Christmas. It is no literary masterpiece but it has a good rhyme and cadence to it as a read aloud and fans of the television series will enjoy. Throughout the story the reindeer is feeling very hungry because he can not find any ‘Reindeer Moss’ to munch on, so we decided to make a treat of our own: Reindeer Nuggets. This is an easy recipe we found on the Elf on a Shelf website and adapted for our needs. We substituted Honey Nut Chex for the Golden Grahams and chocolate chips for the morsels but we managed to find everything else. The best part was that I could use gluten free granola so that I can enjoys this snack with the kids.

Craft Thursdays, Kindercrafts, Uncategorized

Rudolph with a Candy Cane

Posted on December 5, 2012December 5, 2012 by Mrs. Malo

With Day 5 the craft came before the book. I was scouring pinterest one night, procrastinating of course, and came across a cute reindeer craft that I thought would be a good ‘weeknight’ craft. I then went through our books to find a reindeer book. In my school box I found Rudolph Shines Again. I think it was from a scholastic package I got last Christmas.

The book is not is no award winner but it is cute. The illustrations are very well done (except for some reason Michael kept trying to find ‘the mouse’), and it is written entirely in rhyme. After Christmas Rudolph returns to be mocked by the other reindeer and this leaves him feeling very sorry for himself and his nose loses it’s shine.

After reading the book we got right down to the craft. You can get complete instructions by following the links here. I found all of the things we needed at Michael’s and in our craft bins. If you want to try it make sure you have very small pom poms for the nose. This was one of those crafts that is was great to have a stocked craft centre. I brought out the bin of misc. google eyes and bells and they picked their favourite. Grandma is a knitter so we raided her stash of wool. The only thing I really had to buy was the plastic candy canes.

This was a perfect craft for Eileen. Easy enough for her to do most of it herself and quick enough to keep her attention. Michael even was able to do some of the wrapping himself.

The finished result. They are super cute and all unique!

Books, Craft Thursdays

Reindeer Rebellion

Posted on December 3, 2011December 3, 2011 by Mrs. Malo

Our book for December second was The Great Reindeer Rebellion.

This is a cute book I picked up on the discount shelf at Coles/Chapters. From an adult perspective, and in light of all the labour unrest that has happened in the past year it is nice to see that there are some employees that just can’t be replaced – Santa’s Reindeer! This story is written in rhyming verse and sounds similar to the traditional Night before Christmas. There are a few times the rhymes could be more creative (up & up) but overall it is very nice to read aloud and easy language for kids.

We had Gord’s staff party so Gramma and Grampa watched the kids and did a reindeer craft with them, and after seeing what they came up with I am very happy I gave them this task! They found an outline for Birch Branch Reindeer and adapted it for the kids. First my dad went out to the field behind their house to find some appropriate wood. They wanted to make small reindeer so he found the appropriate size branch but you could go larger to make a reindeer that could stand beside your fireplace. He cut a body and head for each of the girls and then found twigs for legs and antlers. He prepared them by drilling the appropriate sized holes for the legs and antlers. They did suggest to me that if I was to do this again to cut them a few days in advance so the wood could dry out a bit easier, this would make it easier to stick together. Dad also said you need to be careful where you drill the holes for the legs so your reindeer can stand easily and doesn’t do the splits!

With the girls they first glued on the legs and antler and then added the embellishments. They added googly eyes and used pom poms for the nose and tail. Mom found some gymp coring in my craft bin and used it to put the bell around the neck. Kaitlyn decided she was going to make Rudolph’s girlfriend Clarice so she added a pink bow. I think they turned out super cute!