Christmas.....and break.....and just normal craziness!

I hope you all enjoyed my 12 Days of Christmas Freebies!  I have to admit it was really fun on my end coming up with cute activities to give away.

Well, right after Christmas, I decided to get a new computer.  My laptop was old and froze from time-to-time.  I have a MAC laptop for work and everyone tells me MAC's are soooo much better.  I ended up purchasing a desktop with a 21" screen.  I'm having tons of neck problems from endless hours on the computer so I needed something with a bigger screen.

Did I mention it's big?

HUGE!

In fact, I find myself backing up more and more because it's so big!  It comes with a wireless keyboard so I rearranged (and cleaned) my office, switched desks to one with a keyboard drawer, and voila, I am feeling less pain already.

Now, the downside.  Even though I have a MAC for work, I really only use it for e-mail and word docs.  I have NO idea how to use a MAC.  Nada.  Nilch!

All of my quick short cuts.....gone!

UGH!

So, I've spent the last week relearning how to use a computer.  Not quite how I thought I'd be spending my winter break.  But I'm learning.  Slowwwlllyyy.

I finally figured out how to upload my pictures......and find them, so I could do a blog post about the activities we did leading up to the holiday.

One of the projects we completed were our Reindeer hands.  I really enjoy this project each year and the kids LOVE getting their hands painted.

They didn't turn out as well as they did last year.  I had new paint this year and it was very diluted.  Here is a pic of last year's Reindeer.

Here is the breakdown of how to make these cuties!

Step 1:  Paint their hand brown

Step 2: Stamp their hand on white paper

Step 3:  Cut out their handprint and glue onto brown construction paper

Put the eyes and nose on, and attach the pipe cleaner and you're done!  Although it's super easy, it is time-consuming.  This would be a great activity to have a parent volunteer (or two.)


I posted earlier about another project we worked on but I never posted the finished project.  We made stained glass Christmas Trees.  They turned out soooo cute!

Although I usually make them bigger, we don't have much in the way of supplies this year (budget cuts) so I made them smaller this year.  This also enabled me to put the tree inside the parent card to serve as a little present.  They were very easy to make and the kids really enjoyed making them.  You can read my original post on how to make them here.

I have two lovies who don't celebrate the holiday's so I made a heart template for them.

I might just make these with the whole class for Valentine's Day!


I LOVED Krista Wallden's "Unwrap Your Freebie" giveaway!  One of the freebies were these adorable Christmas Gift Tags.  I made these money practice cards.  The kids match the coin value with the coin images and attach them with linking chains.  LOVE linking chain activities.....a little extra fine motor practice doesn't hurt anyone!

P.S.  I've been working on a lot of new products that I'll be posting soon!

Hope you can use these ideas in your classroom!  What did you do over your holiday / winter break?