This week we are reading Merry Christmas Mouse by Laura Numeroff and our theme is ORNAMENTS!
If you celebrate Christmas, you may already be knee deep in decorating (or done already!), but we have a few homemade ornament ideas and activities to help you have some book inspired fun this week!
One of the highlights of our holiday season each year is creating homemade ornaments together with our kids, and this year we’re making sparkly candy cane spool ornaments.
My son made a candy cane spool ornament a few years ago at preschool and I love it, so we are making several to add to our ornament collection this year.
M A T E R I A L S N E E D E D:
- glitter (red and silver), or use glitter glue (my favorite)
- paint (red and white)
- paintbrush
- 2 white pipe cleaners
- jingle bell
- white glue
- red bead
- wooden spools
D I R E C T I O N S:
Start off by painting three spools white and three spools red. Then let the spools dry.
Once dry, put the spools inside a cardboard box (or on top of newspaper) and cover the spools with white glue and glitter! Put silveR glitter on the white spools and red glitter on the red spools. Let the spools dry and then shake off the excess glitter.
Add a bead to a pipe cleaner and bend the end of the pipe cleaner to secure the bead in place. Then bend the other side of the pipe cleaner into a candy cane shape. Next thread the spools onto the pipe cleaner rotating colors (white, red, white, red…).
Thread a jingle bell through the pipe cleaner at the end of the candy cane and bend the pipe cleaner around the jingle bell hook to secure the jingle bell in place.
Cut another pipe cleaner and take a small piece of it and bend it around the top of the candy cane to create a ornament hook that can be used to hang the ornament on the Christmas tree branch.
It is super easy to make a bunch of these at one time with your kids if you have them paint spools in big batches. Threading spools through pipe cleaners is a great fine motor skills activity for kids as well.
I can’t wait to hang our new candy cane spool ornaments on our Christmas tree this year!
O T H E R A W E S O M E O R N A M E N T S:
NEED SOME MORE ORNAMENT THEMED ACTIVITIES?
M O R E F R O M O U R C O - H O S T S:
Check out these great ideas from our Virtual Book Club for Kids co-hosts:
Peppermint Cream Mice - Rainy Day Mum
Christmas STEAM: Paint Eruption Ornaments - Preschool Powol Packets
Solar System Ornaments- Teach Beside Me
Elf Station Ornament CoLor Sort - Sea of Knowledge
If You Give a Mouse Fingerprint Ornament for Kids - The Educators' Spin On It
Ornaments to Color and Sew - Mama Smiles
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