Receiving a Christmas card in the mail these days is quite a treat, so why not display them beautifully on this colourful String Art Christmas Tree.
I’ve always loved the idea of string art, but making holes in my walls for a temporary project is not ideal. That’s where 3M Clear hooks are perfect, they stick to most surfaces, then come off cleanly. When the box arrived with the full range I couldn’t wait to get started. The Decorating Clips are small and unobtrusive, and were the perfect choice for this project.
You could also use this tree as an Advent Calender by pegging on 25 numbered envelopes, or if you have very limited space, just decorate as you would a normal tree and pop your presents under it on Christmas morning.
Read on for instructions and a chance to win one of 5 prize packs…
You will need:
- 2 packs 3M decorating clips (36 clips to be exact)
- coloured yarn or string
- scissors
- ruler, pencil, dinner plate, protractor
- small pegs
- washi tape and pom poms, glue (optional)
How to:
- Gather your supplies, have a dig around your craft drawer to find cute bits and pieces that will decorate your pegs and finished tree.
- Mark the desired position of the 3M clips on the wall with a pencil. I have spaced my clips 10cm apart. 8 clips across the bottom (70cm) and 11 up the side (100cm). For the star at the top, a dinner plate is an ideal size. Mark nine evenly spaced positions to make each point of the star. It’s easier if you use a protractor – angle if 40 degrees from the center.
- Following the directions on pack, stick each clip over your marks with the open part of the hook facing out.
- Leave to set for the recommended time of about 30min
- Now the fun part. String your yarn in a criss cross fashion between the hooks making sure you don’t miss any.
- Follow my cute animation to make the star.
- Decorate your pegs if desired
- Then it’s time to have fun and decorate your tree. Get the kids to clip on Christmas cards from family and friends.
Once Christmas is done and dusted, you can easily remove your work of art without a trace. The 3M hooks are unobtrusive and come off cleanly, so they are ideal for hanging decorations wherever you please without nail holes. Here is another idea for decorating with the help of 3M hooks.
Christmas Theme Tot Trays
There are an assortment of Christmas themed tot trays that can be found throughout the internet. Here are a few ideas that make learning during the holidays even more memorable.
Tot tray number one is a Christmas Tree Pattern Matching game from the Christmas Tot Pack by Carisa of 1+1+1=1. This tray can be more complex with multiple trees to match, but I chose to simplify it and only have one tree for each pattern to match. You could also use cups to sort the trees. But for the sake of simplicity I printed and laminated the “game board” (and taped it to the bottom of the tray in hopes that it won’t get tossed or trashed ;)) and cut and laminated the matching trees.
The second tot tray is really a magnet board (dry erase board). The goal of this tray is to match up the pompoms with the correctly color light bulb and to work on color recognition and the names of colors. I taped the colored lights print out from Tons of Fun and added a small cup of magnetic pompoms, two of each color.
The third tot tray is a color sorting tray. I placed a bowl full of red and green pompoms in the middle and a red and green cup. The idea here is to sort the colored pompoms into the correct colored cup. These trays also work on hand-eye coordination.
To further emphasize color, I have set up a red bin with objects found around the house. The bin has red balls, blocks, legos, clothes pins, pompoms and some other recognizable red objects.
Set up a tot tray at a small table or interest area.
On the table I have included a tray with a jar or play dough and a gingerbread man play dough mat which I printed for free from twinkl.
I have also included a tin pail with a variety of Christmas-y cookie cutters and a container of brown play dough. You can make your own playdough here:
You can add some ginger root spice or cinnamon to create a gingerbread scent but the doughy smell can be too powerful so start with just a little at first.
Gladware Snowglobes:
A Christmas craft
Too cute, really easy to make, and the kids will love them.
Here’s what you’ll need:
•Glad 4 oz Mini Round Containers & Lids
•Jumbo sized marshmallows (I used just over a bag for a class of 22)
•Black permanent markers
•Wooden toothpicks
•Orange chenille stems (aka pipe cleaners)
•A hot glue gun and glue sticks
•Fake snow
•Silver glitter (aka Christmas spirit
)•Ribbon (optional*)
I did these in small groups of students since there was a hot glue gun involved. I did all the hot gluing but with little ones, I thought it best to be able to keep an eye on each of them as they made their snowmen.
My prep work included cutting the orange pipe cleaners into 1/2-3/4 inch pieces for noses, breaking toothpicks in half for the arms and plugging in the hot glue gun.
I gave each child two marshmallows, a permanent marker, a “nose,” and two “arms.” Each student used the black markers to draw coal eyes, and a mouth on one marshmallow, and then buttons on the other. Then they push the orange “nose” into the face marshmallow and an “arm” in each side of the snowman body.
Once the snowman parts are put together, that’s where I come in with the hot glue gun.
First, I glue the two marshmallows together to make an assembled snowman.
Then I put hot glue on top of the snowman’s head and glue him upside down to the bowl portion of the mini container.
Then I let the kids add a pinch or two of fake snow and a sprinkle of Christmas spirit (silver glitter).
Once they’ve added the snow and glitter, the bottom of the snow globe is ready to be put on.
To ensure a tight seal, I used hot glue around the inside of the lid rim and then pressed the lid on securely.
I had each child turn over their snow globe, give it a shake and voila! A snow globe is born. (*Optional: hot glue a ribbon loop with a bow to the top of the snow glove and create an ornament).
Holiday Center Additions
WRITING CENTER ADDITIONS
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| name stamping (pdf from 1+1+1=1), christmas alphabet coloring book (pdf from bry-back manor), glitter glue pens skills practiced: fine motor, printing name/letters, letter recognition, creativity, phonics |
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| sand paper letters and gingerbread flour tray skills practiced: fine motor, letter recognition, printing |
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| letter beads on pipe cleaners (we'll do a couple version of this: sorting letters and then spelling names and other well known words skills practiced: fine motor, letter recognition, spelling |
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| charles dickens christmas puzzles (puzzles are cut up christmas cards) skills practiced: spatial reasoning, problem solving |
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| craft stick christmas tree skills practiced: spatial reasoning, problem solving, size/length |
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| christmas pattern puzzles (pdf via prekinders) skills practiced: spatial reasoning, problem solving, shapes, fine motor, geometry |
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| stacking boxes skills practices: spatial reasoning, problem solving, size |
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| tweezing pom-poms into star tray skills practiced: sorting, fine motor |
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| pattern making with pom-pomsskills practiced: patterning sorting |
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| tonging jingle bells skills practiced: classifying, colors, fine motor, sorting |
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| scooping cranberries into numbered cups skills practiced: fine motor, number recognition, counting |
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| measuring ribbon (there are 12 cards which the boys will first lay out in order, they will then measure the ribbons and place them on the correct cards) skills practiced: counting, number recognition, using ruler, measurement, recording findings, fine motor |
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| christmas tree light game: roll the dice to see how many lights you can add, 1st one to empty their bowl wins (the "lights" are from a light bright, the "tree" is a painted craft cone) skills practiced: counting, social, fine motor |
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| christmas items and observation notebook skills practiced: measuring, observing, comparing, recording date, expressing thought through print |
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| painting with pine needles & glitter skills practiced: fine motor, creativity |
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| peppermint play-dough (basic play-dough recipe with red food coloring, peppermint extract, and fake glitter snow added) skills practiced: fine motor, creativity |
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| gift wrapping skills practiced: fine motor, cutting, taping, problem solving, practical life |
Thanks to: http://joyfullyweary.blogspot.com.au
