Christmas Theme Activities | learning 4 kids

Minty Candy Cane Scented Play Dough Ornaments

Posted by Janice on December 16, 2012 10 Comments

Making Play Dough Christmas Ornaments with Minty Candy Cane Scented Play Dough is an open-ended opportunity to play in an unstructured way, allowing children to explore their creativity and imagine.

The Minty Candy Cane Scented Play Dough heightens the sensory experience and was used to make the play dough ornaments which were then decorated with metallic confetti and sequins.

So simple and so much fun…..and a whole lot of learning and skill building happening too.

A little while back I shared with you an activity we did making Salt Dough Christmas Decorations (Ornaments) for the Christmas tree. Making Christmas Play Dough Ornaments was inspired by this activity and provided an opportunity for my kids to practice and role play the skills and ideas that they learnt from making the salt dough and their salt dough Christmas ornaments.

What you will need?

You will need Minty Candy Cane Scented Play Dough, Christmas Cookie Cutters and Metallic Confetti and Sequins. I also added three Candy Cane Ornaments from the Christmas tree to add to the creativity.

Click here to view the Minty Candy Cane Scented Play Dough Recipe

Let’s Play

Role Play: Making Christmas Play Dough Ornaments was very much like making our Salt Dough Ornaments. It involved kneading the play dough, rolling it out flat and pressing the Christmas cookie cutters into the dough. Using the candy cane ornament my girls made small holes to imitate the ones we made with a straw on our Salt Dough Ornaments.

Decorating the Play Dough Ornaments was so much fun and I absolutely loved watching the creativity and ideas they came up with. They came up with so many different patterns with shapes and patterns with colours filling up the space and area provided.

Benefits of Playing with Play Dough

Self-expression
Imagination and creativity
Building and strengthening fine motor skills
Eye and hand coordination
Problem solving – finding solutions to overcome challenges
Social interactions
Spatial awareness

More Play Dough Play Ideas

More Christmas Activities and Ideas

Salt Dough Christmas Decorations

Posted by Janice on December 9, 2012 7 Comments

We’ve been making Salt Dough Christmas Decorations (ornaments) for our Christmas tree. They are so much fun and super easy to make! The most wonderful thing about making salt dough decorations is that it is great for all ages to participate in and the final product is something that you can keep and treasure for many years to come.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED?

You will need salt dough, baking paper, rolling pin, Christmas theme cookie cutters and straws.

Click here to find out how to make salt dough: Easy Salt Dough Recipe

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:

After preparing and making the Salt Dough, place a ball of the dough onto a sheet of cooking paper and roll our flat with a rolling pin. The cooking paper helps make it easier to transfer onto an oven later.
Press christmas shape cookie cutters into the flattened salt dough
Using the straw place a small hole into the salt dough. This hole will later be used to thread a piece of string or ribbon through it for hanging.
Place in the oven and bake until completely harden. Some browning will occur and this is fine because we plan to paint our Salt Dough Christmas Decorations.

PAINTING OUR SALT DOUGH DECORATIONS

The wonderful thing about making Salt Dough Decorations is that it can can spread it out and make them over a period of a few days. We decided to paint our hardened and cooked salt dough decorations outside because it was a beautiful evening. Sprinkling on some glitter onto the wet paint adds a nice touch to the decorations. When the paint was dry, using a black permanent marker pen, I carefully wrote each child’s name and the year they made them on the back of the decoration. I am sure that years to come they will enjoy looking back on the things they had made.

HANGING OUR SALT DOUGH DECORATIONS

We thread a piece of ribbon through the hole that was made using the straw earlier and tied a knot to create a loop for hanging. My kids hung them onto our christmas tree and they look absolutely wonderful, adding a personal touch to our christmas tree.

Filed Under: Themes Play | Tagged: Tagged With: Christmas Activities, Christmas Theme Activities, Salt Dough

Paper Plate Christmas Masks

Posted by Janice on December 4, 2012 4 Comments

Kids will have lots of fun making and playing with these Reindeer and Santa Paper Plate Masks as it encourages imaginative play and creativity. These masks are super easy to make and require a basic paper plate as the base, simple craft materials and our free printables reindeer ears and santa hat which are available for printing below.

You will need:

Large paper plate

Reindeer ears: Click here to download and print – Printable Reindeer Ears

Brown paint, crayons or textas

Sticky tape & scissors

Large red pompom

Large pop stick paddle

Black marker pen

How to make?

Paint the paper plate and reindeer ears brown. Allow the paint to dry.
Cut out small eye holes in the paper plate and draw on the mouth.
Cut out the reindeer ears and sticky tape to the top of the paper plate. Also sticky tape the large pop stick at the bottom of the paper plate.
Sticky tape the red pompom for the Reindeer nose.

You will need:

Large paper plate

Santa hat: Click here to download and print – Printable Santa’s Hat

Red paint, crayons or textas

Kids PVA craft glue and sticky tape

Cotton wool balls

Large pop stick paddle

Scissors & black marker pen

How to make?

Paint the Santa hat red, leaving the cotton wool areas white. While waiting for the paint to dry cut out holes for the eyes in the paper plate and draw on a nose.
Cut out the Santa hat and sticky tape it to the top of the paper plate. Also sticky tape the large pop stick at the bottom for the handle.
Apply glue to the cotton wool areas and shred the cotton with fingers. Apply thinly to the wet glue.

Filed Under: Themes Play | Tagged: Tagged With: Christmas Activities, Christmas Theme Activities

Handprint Christmas Tree Craft

Posted by Janice on November 30, 2012 1 Comment

This Handprint Christmas Tree Craft is a great activity for kids and toddlers and it is so simple to do!

Creating a Christmas Tree using your kid’s painted handprints makes an adorable decoration for Christmas.

What You will need?

Green & yellow Paint

Paint brush

A3 coloured card

Glue stick

Large sheet white paper

How to make:

1. With the paint brush, apply green paint to an open hand.

2. Gently press hand onto the white paper. Repeat this until there are a sufficient number of green hand prints.

3. Wash and dry hands.

4. Apply yellow paint to the hands using a paint brush and press gently onto the paper.

5. When hand prints are dry, cut them out and position them into the shape of a tree.

6. When happy with the arrangement, glue onto the coloured card.

Tips & Ideas:

Glue on some buttons or pompoms for decorations.
You can also decorate your christmas tree with painted finger dots by placing your fingers into coloured paint and dots them onto the handprint christmas tree
There are 18 green painted hand prints and 2 yellow displayed in the photo.
Using the paint brush to apply the paint to the hands gives a more even coat when pressed onto the paper. There is no excess paint and less mess!

Filed Under: Paint Play, Themes Play | Tagged: Tagged With: Christmas Activities, Christmas Theme Activities

FREE Christmas Activities eBook

Posted by Janice on November 27, 2012 25 Comments

A Thank You Gift from Me to You!

Last year when Learning4kids was still in the early stages of starting up, I created a FREE ebook to share with readers as a way to say thanks and to also celebrate the launch of my little blog. Today I want to share this same ebook with you as a token to share my thanks for your support and encouragement of learning4kids. Some of you have been with us right from the start, others a little shorter and some who have just discovered us but all the same it really warms my heart to see that you are here cheering me on and enjoying learning4kids– thank you!! I am just so thrilled you have found us and joining in with our many play times here on learning4kids.

If you would like to get to know me or learn more about the why I started learnig4kids, you may like to read my ABOUT ME PAGE

Inside the Christmas Activities ebook you will find 35 pages of Christmas craft ideas, recipes and printable pages for the kids. I have not updated the ebook to include newer activities and play ideas that I have been posting recently. If you are looking more ideas, click here – LIST OF CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES

Come join the many playtimes here on Learning4kids!

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