All the Pretty Lights!

Christmas Lights

Two quick Christmas light crafts

 Find or draw a Christmas light bulb. I got mine from the Pre K Mailbox magazine. You could google a pattern and draw it in black maker on white cardstock. Cut it out.  Mix up some corn syrup paint.  A squirt of clear (light) corn syrup and  a few drops of food coloring. Simple and sticky! Paint the bulb with the shiny paint. It will take a few days to dry. It will be shiny just like a glass light bulb. Make a few and string them together and hang them from the wall or window. We put a sign with ours that said, “ Jesus is the Light of the World."  I love the way it brightens up my classroom door! :) 

Clean up is much easier than you may suspect. It wipes right off. 

Another simple fun Christmas light craft, is to have your little one dip fingers into paint and make finger print lights all over a piece of card stock. After it is dry connect the lights with a fine tip sharpie. You can write:

" YOU LIGHT UP MY WORLD!"

On the inside and have the kiddos sign their names!

Christmas Card idea adapted from Teach Preschool

Fun and Done! 

Glittery and Swirly Ornaments

Who would have thought some floor wax and glitter could be so much fun! That’s right... wash and wax your floor. Good, now dump glitter all over it before it dries! Hurry! Go! Okay, no don’t. Don’t be tempted. It will NEVER come off. Okay, it will. Eventually. But who wants to wait for eventually?

Here is what you are really gonna do. Go to your craft store and buy some clear glass craft ornaments. You should go NOW! They sell out fast. Oh what’s that? You bought yours in September? Huh, go figure... I DID TOO!!! :) :) :) Good thing I did, because Hobby Lobby was sold out. But Michaels had some... so it was all good. 

Okay, dump some floor wax into the bulb and swish it around. Don’t swish too hard because it will get bubbly inside... and you want to try to avoid that. After all of the bulb has been waxed, so to speak, take the cap off the wax and dump the excess wax back into the bottle. I like to balance the bulb onto of

the wax for a while just to make sure it is all out. 

Now quickly dump a good bit of superfine glitter into the ball and shake like crazy. You want to try to do this quickly so that you don’t get a dark clump of glitter on the bottom of you bulb. Pop the cap back on and you have a mess free glittery ornament that is beautiful. :) So much fun! 

Originally seen here

Okay, now that you have some of those clear glass bulbs... you can also make these awesome swirly ornaments. We make these as gifts for our parents in preschool. I squirt in the paint and the kids shake them like mad crazy. 

Start by cleaning the inside of your ornament with some rubbing alcohol. When it is completely dry (use a hair dyer to speed up the process)  then squirt 3 small squirts of acrylic paint down the sides of the bulb. Cover the top with your fingers and shake, turn or swirl the ornament. Then tilt it upside down in the ornament tray or egg carton to the excess paint will run out the ornament. You can also turn it periodically through the emptying process so that you will get a pretty design. :) I use puffy writing paint to put student’s initials on the outside. :) Cap it ... and some ribbon and hang it on the tree. :) 

 This is what the paint looks like when it drains out of the bulb. Neat, huh?!?

 These are the cute lil gifts bags that we wrapped up the parent's presents in! 

The tags are from the back of the Little Debbie's boxes that have been saved for years.

They came in handy!

Preschool: Don't Underestimate the Simple

Don't underestimate the power of a simple project. With the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, I needed a simple Table Time project to kick off letter 'C' week. My husband I got some Christmas cards form the people at our church. As I was opening them I mentioned that I did not really understand the point of a Christmas card. Some are so impersonal. Just a form message and a signed name. Now don't get me wrong. I appreciate them. I do. It just seems like a lot of work that one simple facebook status would have taken care of. Okay, I know some of you are freaking out, thinking that I am borderline rude. Maybe lazy. Maybe just another ignorant product of the Social Media Generation. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe I am just a little more "Ba-hum-buggish" this year. Either way, my husband laughed at me (he appreciates my honesty...and quirkiness) while I told him, "Oh well, the preschoolers will love cutting these to pieces." And there you have it. A simple fine motor activity for 'C' week. 

Sorry that there are no pictures. I forgot my camera. --- Anyway, I just gave each kiddo the front of one Christmas card and a pair of scissors. They could choose to snip, chop or cut out shapes and pictures on their recycled card. I was surprised that in both classes, the kiddos cut and cut and cut some more. They thoroughly enjoyed being able to obliterate something. 

The cards make the perfect thing to cut. Especially for the younger kids. The are sturdy and hold their shape, making it easy for the kiddos to handle. Perfect way to work on correct scissor grip. Easy. Easy. Easy. 

Don't over think it people. Sometimes simple is best. (And don't be afraid to recycle those Christmas cards! This would make a great cutting center at preschool!)

B is for Berries

I {heart} google images. You can find any coloring page or clipart item you need. Image search for holly berry coloring pages. Find one you love and print it!

At Table Time this week I gave each kiddo a green crayon and some red finger paint that I laced with red glitter. They were given verbal instructions to color the leaves green and finger paint the berries red. They did great! :) Simple, fun and festive! :) 

Monster Cookies

I was telling my BFF, Kristy that I was making some Monster Cookies for her church Christmas party this weekend. She said, "Umm... you know it's not October, right?"

I was surprised she never heard of Monster Cookies.

I grew up with a version of them my Aunt TC made.

I promise you it is the only batch of Christmas cookies that you will need to make this year. This recipe makes at least 16 dozen. Easy... probably a ton more... wait let me count...

Ok, I'm back... so far I have about 1/3 of the dough baked and I have tons of dozens of  cookies. It is easily over 100 And I am expecting at least another 150!!! Crazy right???

These are so soft and chewy. So dense and yummy. The great thing is you can make the basic batter and add whatever "extras" you want... Read on, you will see what I mean.

Grab:

 (Ok, wait... take a deep breath. Don't freak out. I know this is gonna sound crazy, but just go with it.. k?)

12 eggs beaten

2 lbs Brown Sugar

4 c white sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 Tbsp Karo

8 teaspoons Baking soda

1 lb Butter

3 lb peanut butter ( 4 cups plus)

18 c oatmeal ( lg container)

1 lb Chocolate chips

1 lb mini M&M's

( I always add PB chip and white chocolate chips too!)

Go:

In large bowl mix ingredients in order. Beat after each. Drop onto cookie sheet. bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes Take out while soft. DO NOT OVER BAKE. Let cool a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack. I usually bake mine for 11-12 minutes. I like them super soft. Don't worry, the centers will firm up as they cool completely, but they will not be dry at all! :) :) :) 

 I measure my baking soda by dumping each teaspoon separately around the bowl so I don't lose count.

 Four stick of butter. Oh My Word... I feel like Paula Deen!

 Go ahead, taste the batter... I won't tell ;)

 Yummy batter

 Up close

 Up closer

 I bake mine on Parchment... you should too.

 oh, yeah.

There is a reason I am baking in my sweatpants today... My jeans probably wouldn't fit by the end of the night :)

Now, here is what I do. I mix as many of the ingredients in the mixer as will fit. Today I got up to the PB, then had to dump half the batter into a huge bowl. I added half the PB to the bowl and half to the remaining batter in the mixer. I mixed the rest by hand, then added the oatmeal to the big bowl, and mixed both batches of dough together. Add in you "extras" last. 

I used mini dark chocolate chips

M&M minis

1/2 bag of Reese's PB chips

In the past I have also added butterscotch chips, raspberry chips, caramel chips, white choco chips, nuts... anything your lil heart desires! 

You can also split the batch after mixing in the oatmeal and make several different kinds of cookies. I have also done this before as well. 

I have never frozen the dough, but I have frozen the baked cookies, and they freeze wonderfully! 

I hope you and yours enjoy my family's favorite cookie! 

Preschool: Writing Center

It is "Letter of the Week" time for the 3 year olds! :) In the 3 year old class, we are focusing on letter recognition and sound association. But I also like to expose them to writing the letter. Adding in a hands on activity often helps the kiddos remember the letter. :) Here is my writing center at preschool. It is a simple and inexpensive creation that can be used for multiple activities.

I went to my local Lowe's and picked a thin piece of Plexi-glass. I had them cut in half. ( It's free!) back at school, I place our Handwriting Without Tears workbook that the older class uses, underneath the plexi-glass. The kiddos use dry erase markers to complete the workbook page. Then they can simply erase it and try again, or give a fellow student a turn. It saves money and waste. The kids love it! I love it! You can also recycle dot-to-dots, look and find pages, math pages, mazes, etc underneath for another fun center activity! :) Give it a try!

I had to add this picture... of when she noticed I was photographing her! :) 

Mini Pumpkin Pies at Preschool

Pumpkin Pie? Ummm.... do you even have to ask? YES, PLEASE!!!! 

It does not get any better than that. 

Oh wait, yes it does. 

Make them mini... of course! 

This makes 18 mini pies 

I basically followed the Libby's pumpkin pie recipe on the back of the can... or found here, minus the pie shell. 

When I say "basically" followed the recipe... it is because we made these in preschool. 

So I helped measure... and the kids were pretty close. :) The only big change I made, was adding a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice in addition to the other spices. 

Try it! It was really yummy! 

I allow the kids to measure, open cans, dump, mix, pour, shake and sprinkle. Their favorite part was cracking the eggs! Don't be scared. Let 'em do it. ;) I just have them crack them into separate cups, so digging out the shell is rather easy. :) And surprisingly, there was hardly any shell to remove!

Fill the pie shells and bake... I preheated my oven to 400 degrees. But turned it down to 375 when  I put the pies in. I started checking them after 20 minutes... but it took more like 26-27 minutes. The way you can tell is by gently touching the center of the pie, if your finger does not leave a mark, then they are ready. But if you get some pumpkin stuck to your finger, they can go a little longer. I would say no more than 30 minutes though. And the graham cracker crust makes all the difference in the world! 

So get the kids in the kitchen. Let them make a mess and enjoy this yummy treat!