My May Days!

 May 1st, often called May Day, just might have more holidays than any other day of the year. It's a celebration of spring. It's a day of political protests. It's a saint's feast day and a day for organized labor. In many countries, it is a national holiday.

As a little girl, I would hang small baskets of flowers on the doors of family and friends in my neighborhood, bringing in May to celebrate the return of spring.

We continued this tradition when our daughters were toddlers. My husband and I were lucky enough to live just down the road from my husband's parents. The day before May Day, we made little homemade baskets with colored papers.

 Simply trace a half circle using a plate to create the little cone baskets and cut it out. Then cut a strip of paper from one side to make a handle. Curve the straight edge of the paper in half over itself to form the cone shape needed to make the basket.

Glue or staple the edges of the basket together, plus add the handle by fastening it to 

each side of the basket. Ribbons or bows can be added, but are not necessary.
This project is so easy peasy to do!

The girls were always so excited waiting for May 1 morning to arrive! They picked whatever small flower bouquet they wanted from dandelions to lilac flowers. We would sneak down to Grandma's house hoping she wouldn't see us. The girls would tiptoe up to the door, hang their baskets of love, ring the doorbell and run to hide.

Of course, Grandma was always excited to see those adorable little baskets! She would play like she didn't know the two special little people that placed them on her door. This only lasted for a few seconds because the girls were too excited to stay in their hiding places. Every year Grandma would be totally surprised and there would be lots of hugs and kisses!

 I also used this activity with my little learners, making little baskets the day of May 1 or the day before, then sending them home. They tended to fill their baskets with lots and lots of dandelions! They came to school with delightful stories of how they shared their May Day baskets with family, friends or neighbors. Occasionally a little one would forget, then rush home after school to do it!

The stories they created while writing down what happened were full of happiness and a joy to hear being shared with the class! Every year it was a treasured teaching project!

 Wishing you a very special May Day!

Tiny Book of Colors

Learning the colors is one of the first skill sets achieved by little people.

Colors are everywhere which makes them so easy to teach. 

 

Freebie Alert Here Only! 

I have a variety of color activities in my store, but have decided to post one here as a

freebie for blog readers only!

Tiny Book of Colors
Here it is in my store, but the free pages are posted below!

This is a quick and easy way to introduce or review colors and color words. Plus each child will have a great take home read and review booklet to keep!

Included in this activity are the colors; red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, brown,

black, white, and pink.

Here are some example pages shown!



Run the three booklet pages, printing on the front side only. The ten little color examples can be run colored or grayscale. There are two sets to each sheet, but each child only gets one set of ten pictures for their booklet.

 

Pass the three pages out to each student. They are to fold each sheet in half on the short dotted line and again in half on the long dotted line. Place the three folded pages together with the title on the front and The End page last. The booklet then gets stapled or glued together on the left side.

 

The booklet color words maybe traced or colored during introduction or review.

 

 

 

 

Pass out the set of ten little pictures to each student.

They cut the ten pictures apart and glue them in the box on the correct color page. 

The little color boxes can be in color or black and white.There are links in the product description linked above to many other color activities and products!

Enjoy this free activity!

 



Trains for Christmas!

Planning for Christmas activities already?

There are so many great stories about trains for children!

 

A very special story for the holiday season is the classic

"The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg's.

 

Some other examples are:
1. Smokey by Bill Peet
2. Crack in the Track (Thomas the Tank Engine Story)
3. Little Train by Lois Lenski
4. The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
5. Steam, Smoke, and Steel: Back in Time with Trains by Patrick O’Brien
6. Big Book of Trains by DK Publishing
7. The Goodnight Train by June Sobel
8. The Potty Train by David Hochman
9. Dinosaur Train by John Steven Gurney
10. Freight Train by Donald Crews

 

I have two special train activities that can be used for Christmas!

The first one is a creative arts and writing activity.

Santa Express Christmas Train Do Together Parent/Child Homework Activity

This activity includes the cover sheet, 2 train engine templates and parent letter.

One train template is a simple black and white version. For older children there is a more detailed gray version. Print the train template you decide to use, on heavy paper and send it home with the parent explanation letter.

 

Parent and child will decorate it together. The train can be covered with whatever, but it must stay attached when hung up. Plus, it shouldn’t be so heavy that it won’t stay taped to a wall.

Suggestions for decorations: glitter, pompoms, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, felt, foam, lace, paper clips, sprinkles, colored rice, pictures, beads, sequins, shells, feathers, flowers, cotton, fake jewels, nature materials, sand, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, fabric, papers, foil, string, recycling materials, whatever you have around the house.

 

They need to put a picture of their child in the engine cab, so it looks like he/she is the engineer. When finished the student will bring back to school a Christmas Train to share with the class. It then becomes a prompt for story writing and telling.

It is always fun to see the different ways to decorate the train! They make a wonderful seasonal wall or bulletin board display! It can also be done in class instead of sending it home or send it home with older students that do not need parent help.

 

I have many different products similar to this to do during the year! Parents love doing these with their children!

Do Together Activities

 

The next activity is a fun product and has been very popular, so I am sharing it again!

Santa Express Geometric Christmas Train 2D Shapes 

This fun product incorporates 5 geometric 2D shapes into the building of a train engine, plus a creative literacy activity.

There are 3 complete train engine choices; 1 has red and green colors, 1 is grayscale colored, and the last is black and white. The train can be made as a stand-alone, but that is better printed on heavy paper. It can also be made by gluing the pieces down on another piece of paper. This project is excellent practice for the fine motor skills of cutting and gluing. It is a good idea to give each child a baggie to hold their cut pieces until they have glued them all.

Introduce or review the five shapes; circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon. Decide if posting the picture of the finished Key that is included, so the children may use it for reference. When doing the black and white or grayscale engines, the children can color or decorate them when finished.
 

It can also be used in a center, but it is better if the pieces are laminated first. Again some of the pieces are small so a baggie helps to keep any from getting lost.

  The literacy activity has a black and white train paper with lines for writing and reading their creative stories. There is a cover sheet to make these stories into a class share book the students can read and reread again and again.

 

I also have many other products for 

Geometric Fun

that can be used during the year.

 

Wishing you a fun filled holiday season!

The Sweaters of Christmas!

Oh, the sweaters of Christmas, they have been given such a bad rap!

I love Christmas sweaters!

 

It was very special to have a decorated sweater for Christmas as I was growing up! It was even better if they had cute pictures, ribbons, bows, bells and sparkly thread.

Christmas-themed sweaters were first produced on a grand scale, when the Christmas holiday was becoming increasingly commercialized. Initially referred to as “Jingle Bell Sweaters,” the first sweaters saw decades of popularity!

 

Then came the word "ugly" when referring to Christmas sweaters. 

 Gaudy, bad taste, tacky, the more stuff on them the better! People hold parties to celebrate the worst sweaters of the year!

So for fun I created a cute craft activity for children to make their own version of the Christmas sweater. It is one that can also be done with parent help as a family project. 

Decorate the Sweater

 

This adorable Christmas activity includes the cover sheet, 4 different blank sweater templates to use and a parent letter.

When finished, it then becomes a prompt for story writing and telling. It is always fun to see the different methods of creating an ugly sweater!

Also see my other activities for:

Christmas

Winter

 

Maybe you will have a wonderfully ugly sweater of Christmas!

I'm pretty sure I will!