Busy Mommy Media » Christmas Arts and Crafts

Gingerbread Playdough

Rachel — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:43:08 +0000

Preschoolers will love this festive touch to traditional play dough. The wonderful gingerbread scent of this play dough adds an additional dimension to this sensory play activity and helps preschoolers to celebrate the holiday season.

What You Need

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
2 tsp. Cream of tartar
1 cup of water
1 tsp vegetable oil
cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, etc.

What To Do

Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar together. Blend the mixture well. In a separate bowl, mix the spices together until you get the scent and color you want. When you are happy with the scent and color of your spice mixture add it to the dry ingredients. In a small bowl mix the water and oil together. Add the water and oil mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Cook the mixture in a pot for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. The play dough will start to pull away from the sides and form clumps. Remove the dough from the pot and allow it to cool. Knead the play dough until it becomes a smooth consistency.

Give each preschooler a piece of gingerbread play dough to experiment with. You may want to provide preschool sized rolling pins, cookie cutters, or dough stamps to create an exciting sensory experience for preschoolers.

Alphabet Practice

Print large bubble letters on pieces of cardstock. Have preschoolers form play dough snakes and then lay the pieces out on top of the letters to create three dimensional play dough alphabet letters.

Preschool Pretend Play

Have preschoolers pretend to make some holiday treats with their gingerbread play dough. Provide preschool sized rolling pins, plastic knives to cut the dough, and a metal pie plate. Have preschoolers pretend to make holiday cookies or pumpkin pie.

Make Use of Leftover Dough

Use leftover gingerbread play dough as a base for a Pine Cone Christmas Tree

Pine Cone Christmas Tree
Preschoolers will love making these open ended pine cone Christmas trees. Let preschoolers use their imagination and decorate their Christmas trees using a variety of leftover sequins, beads, and other craft supplies.

Additional Play Dough Activities

(Taken From - Toddler Sensory Play: Homemade Play Dough for Your Toddler)

Sand – Mix sand into your homemade play dough to give your dough a grainy texture. You can adjust the amount of sand that you add to your play dough to give your toddler a variety of textures.

Cloves – Whole cloves can be added to play dough to create an uneven texture and add lumps to the dough. Toddlers will have a different play experience using the uneven dough and the scent of the cloves adds another dimension to their play.

Be Creative – Nearly any material can be mixed in to your homemade dough to alter the play experience for your toddler. Be aware that if you use an add in that your toddler is used to eating it may encourage them to eat the dough but one taste of the heavy salt in the dough and they are not likely to try it again.

Christmas Countdown Craft

Rachel — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:46:50 +0000

Time is a strange concept for preschoolers. Their life is made up of 5 minute increments and tomorrow is a year away. This simple Christmas countdown craft for preschoolers is fun to make as a family and gives preschoolers a clear passage of time so those last few weeks before Santa comes aren’t quite so frustrating.

Take this easy Christmas craft to the next level by writing simple holiday activities on each strip of paper so that your preschooler has a new activity to do each time he removes a ring from his Christmas countdown. Activities could range from singing a favorite Christmas song, reading a Christmas story, or reading a specific Bible verse.

Christmas Countdown Craft Supplies

Construction Paper (Yellow, Red, and Green)
Child Safety Scissors
Tape

Christmas Countdown Craft Instructions

Cut out a bell shape from a piece of yellow construction paper. Write or help your preschooler copy the following poem:

Christmas Chain

Christmas day will soon be here
And I can hardly wait
I’ve made this little Christmas chain
To help me celebrate.

Please help me hang my chain up high
I’ll cut one loop each day
And when we reach my pretty bell
It will be Christmas day!

Cut the red and green construction paper into 2 inch wide strips. When you have enough strips for each day until Christmas, form a loop with the first strip of paper and tape it closed. Use a second strip of paper in whatever color you did not use for the loop and slide it through the loop. Close the second strip of paper and tape it. Continue, alternating colors, until you have enough paper loops for each day until Christmas.

When you are done, tape the chain to your Christmas bell and hang it somehwere your preschooler can reach it. Remove one loop from the chain every day until Christmas and do the activity written on the loop together as a family.

Pine Cone Christmas Tree

Rachel — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:43:59 +0000

My preschooler loves to make open ended crafts that can be displayed as holiday decorations. These easy pine cone Christmas trees make beautiful and festive holiday decorations.

Preschoolers will love making these open ended pine cone Christmas trees. Let preschoolers use their imagination and decorate their Christmas trees using a variety of leftover sequins, beads, and other craft supplies.

What You Need

Green Paint
Paper Plates
Glue
Extra Play dough – I like to use leftover Gingerbread play dough that is scented using holiday spices such as cinnamon and cloves
Large Pine cones – You can either collect these on a nature walk with the preschoolers or purchase them at the store. Most craft stores have pine-cones in stock during the holiday season for decorating purposes but they could easily be used for this craft project.
Assorted Craft Supplies – You can use any leftover craft supplies for this project. Sequins, beads, buttons and pom poms work well as Christmas tree decorations. Extra yarn or string could be draped around the Christmas tree to create a garland. Foam shapes in a holiday theme would make a wonderful addition and a foam star would be a nice touch for the top of the tree.

What To Do

Pine cone Christmas trees are a really simple to make and they allow preschoolers to be creative with this open-ended project. Start by giving each preschooler a small piece of left over play dough to form into a ball. Give each preschooler a pine cone and instruct them to turn it upside down and gently push it into the play dough to form a base. As they push, the play dough will form a flat base on the bottom that will allow it to stand up and will adhere to the wide end of the pine cone. The upside down pine cone will resemble the shape of a Christmas tree.

Give each preschooler a paper plate to set their pine cone Christmas tree on. Fill another paper plate with green paint and have preschoolers paint their pine cone green. This will need to dry for several hours or overnight before preschoolers are able to decorate their Christmas trees.

When the pine cone Christmas trees have dried assemble your assorted craft supplies in several bowls for the preschoolers to choose from. Give each preschooler a bottle of glue and have them decorate their pine cone Christmas tree in any way they want. Give preschoolers free reign and allow them to be creative as they decorate their Christmas trees.

When the pine cone Christmas trees are completely dry you can either send them home for the preschoolers to share with their families or use them to decorate your preschool classroom in a festive Christmas theme.

Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Rachel — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:40:41 +0000

Gingerbread houses are a fun way to celebrate the Christmas season but they can be difficult and frustrating for preschoolers to make on their own.

This simple variation of the traditional gingerbread house is easy for preschoolers to make on their own and creates a fun gingerbread Christmas tree that preschoolers can decorate. Use this gingerbread Christmas tree as a fun holiday decoration or a festive snack.

What You Need

Sugar Cones
Icing
Popcorn
Red Hot Candy (or another candy of your choice)
Sprinkles
Optional: Additional candy to decorate your gingerbread tree
Plastic knife
Paper plate

What To Do

Step One:
Give each preschooler a sugar cone and a paper plate. Turn the sugar cone upside down on the paper plate so that the pointed end is up and the sugar cone stands on it’s own.

Step Two:
Give each preschooler a plastic knife and a container of frosting. White frosting is the easiest to clean up when you are done and will not stain preschoolers clothes but green would also be nice as the base color for a Christmas tree. Help each preschooler frost their sugar cone so that the entire surface is covered with icing.

Step Three:
Decorate the gingerbread Christmas tree by gently pressing popcorn and assorted candy into the icing. Sprinkle the surface of the icing with colored sprinkles for extra color.

Step Four:
Send the gingerbread Christmas trees home with each preschooler or enjoy them as a festive snack.