Holiday Crafts

Classroom Holiday Gifts & Treats 2021

Dear Sis, 

William’s classroom holiday party is Thursday, so I spent sometime this morning getting an assembly station set up, so he could make treat bags when he got home from school today.

Reading aloud has always been a big part of our parent/child time.  I am currently reading The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids by Sarah Mackenzie, which was the final assignment for the Homeschool Masterclass I took this fall.  Since I can’t actually give other families the gift of reading, I decided a nice holiday book mark conveying that sentiment a good second:)

You Will Need:

24 Count Holiday Magnetic Bookmarks

FREE Give the Gift of Reading Editable Printable by Tag Sis, You’re It!

Printed onto card stock and cut apart!




Love,

b

 

 

Earth Day Book Club

Dear Sis,

Book

Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years by Stacy McAnulty

Craft

We began with a small ball of red Play Doh, which represents earth’s inner core. Layer two, earth’s outer core, was a slightly larger portion of orange Play Doh rolled into a ball, flattened, and wrapped around the red, inner core layer. The third layer, earth’s mantel, was created with yellow Play Doh and the same: ball, flatten, wrap process. The forth layer, earth’s crust is made with tan Play Doh. The fifth layer, is a surface view of the crust using blue Play Doh to depict water and green Play Doh to depict water. Upon completion, we used sting to create a cross section of our model earth, but wrapping string around the ball and pulling each end to slice through the dough without distorting it’s roundness.

Game

I found an inflatable globe at Dollar Tree and came up with a simple game to play with the kiddos. Begin with all players standing up, shout out the name of a landform or body of water, and passes the ball to another player.  Anyone who repeats a term that was already used, or can’t think of a word on their turn, sits down. The final person standing wins.  

Songs

FREE Earth Day Songs Lyric Sheet by Tag Sis, You’re It!

Snack

We used Wilton food color paste to dye the our Sugar Cookie dough and roughly kneaded the two colors together a bit before using a cookie dough scoop to portion the dough before hand rolling it to assure that each cookie would be a perfect circle.

Happy Earth Day!

Love,

b

Classroom Easter Gifts

Dear Sis,

William and I made treats for his preschool classmates and teachers today! He is very excited to eat some “bunny tails!”

Bunny Tail, Printable Bag Toppers by Tag Sis, You’re It!

You Will Need

  • Bunny Tail, Bag Toppers, printed on card stock
  • snack size, zip top bags
  • powdered sugar doughnut holes (we got about 8 bags per box)
  • stapler and scissors

Assembly

  1. Fill snack bags with 4 doughnut holes and press to seal, extracting as much air as possible.
  2. Cut out bag toppers, fold on fold-line, slide to cover as much bag as possible, and stable in place.

Easter Egg Hunt Cookie Mix, Instruction Printable by Tag Sis, You’re It!

Easter Egg Hunt Cookie Mix

b
Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 40 cookies

Ingredients
  

  • 1 quart canning jar, ring, and band
  • 3/4 c dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 c granulated sugar
  • 1 (3.4) oz box instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 2 1/4 c unbleached flour
  • 1 pint canning jar, ring, and band
  • 1 c milk chocolate chips
  • 1 c milk chocolate M&Ms, pastel colors

Instructions
 

  • Wash and dry jars, rings, and bands.
  • Place dry ingredients in quart jar, in the order they appear, tapping to level the jar between each addition.
  • Place candy in pint jar, in the order they appear, tapping to level the jar between additions.
  • Print instructions and secure to quart jar, decorate as desired, and gift.
Keyword cookie mix, cookies, easter

Happy Gifting!

Love,

b

Muffins to Share

Dear Sis,

This morning, Jenn came over with her kiddos. We assembled muffin plates while the littles played. We each contributed five different kinds of cake mix muffins to share with family, friends, and neighbors for Valentine’s Day.

  1. Banana Nut Cake Mix Muffins
  2. Blueberry Cake Mix Muffins
  3. Carrot Cake, Cake Mix Muffins
  4. Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Muffins
  5. Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Muffins
  6. Cranberry Orange Cake Mix Muffins
  7. Lemon Poppyseed Cake Mix Muffins
  8. Monster Cookie Cake Mix Muffins
  9. Oatmeal Raisin Cake Mix Muffins
  10. Pumpkin Spice Cake Mix Cookies

William really enjoys making Cake Mix Cookies, because he is able to most of the measuring, egg cracking, and mixing himself! I like them because, any short cut is appreciated in my season on life:)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love,

b

Gingerbread Village

Dear Sis,

It seemed quiet after all our book club friends left. I put Charlotte down for a nap and William and I built a gingerbread village.

I assembled the houses and applied icing wherever he needed it, but William placed all the candy until about halfway through the third house. I couldn’t believe how dedicated and engaged he was by this activity. We worked on it for over two hours!

Afterward, we used all our crafts to decorate the mantel. William has his own tree this year. He was interested in decorating, but it turns out mom didn’t really want to share:) The D.I.Y snow globes and winter landscape paintings were book club crafts and we painted the wooden snowmen over the weekend.

Happy Holidays!

Love,

b

Trimming the Tree

Dear Sis,

I’m very traditional in my tree decor. We only have a half dozen ornaments we keep from year to year. The rest we throw away and make again next year. Mostly because they are perishable!

Candy Canes

I pick up a box each year from the dollar store to hang on the tree.

Dried Oranges Ornaments

This year I dried orange slices for the first time. It is simple and I plan to add it to my yearly tradition. Slice an orange or two as thinly as possible, while keeping a full ring of skin around the outside of the slice. Place on lined baking sheets and pop them in the oven at 250 for an hour and half. Check every 20 minutes after that, to turn the oranges, and remove the ones that are completely dry. Add an ornament wires and decorate:) I really enjoy the way the light shines through the oranges!

Gingerbread Ornaments

I use a bamboo skewer to make a hole in the top of each cookie before it bakes, then thread an ornament wire through the baked cookies.

Popcorn & Cranberry Garland

We bought an air popper, because we find the popcorn keeps better without butter or oil on it. I string a 5 popcorn, and 1 cranberry pattern on lengths of thread. I takes me the better part of the week to get enough yardage for our small tree, but we really enjoy it as an evening activity around the popcorn bowl:) I find that all-purpose thread and a small blunt ended tapestry needle work well.

Our tree is wonky at the bottom this year because Charlotte keeps picking things off, bending the branches, and unwrapping the presents. Yesterday, she took a gingerbread man off and ate half of him before she brought it to me! LOL. At least, my ornaments are edible:)

Happy Holidays!

Love,

b

Added December 17th

See what I mean!

Popcorn Thief Movie

Thanksgiving Treats

Dear Sis, 

Today was a baking day. William baked cookies for his classmates and I made cranberry bread for story time and to give to his teacher and classroom aid. 

Free Printable Thanksgiving Favor Tags

The printable includes small tags as pictured for topping 3×5 inch bags, which can be purchased at any craft store. It also includes larger tags for topping bread loaves, not pictured, because I gave them away before I remembered to take a picture:)

The brown card stock is 3×4 inches and scored in the center.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

b

Halloween Book Club

Dear Sis, 

Book

The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey

Craft

Pumpkin Painting & Decorating

Game

Melissa and Doug Monster Bowling




Snack

Apple Cider

Cheese, Sausage, Veggie Tray with Ranch Dip in a Pumpkin

Cheeto Bag of Bones

Mummy Hot Dogs

Sugar Cookie Decorating!

Song

We played the Monster Mash by Bobby Pickett while Monster Bowling.

Happy Halloween!

Love,

b