Mommy Monday: 24 Christmas activities for 2-3 year old's

Last week I showed off my DIY advent calendar, which has a different activity for my not-quite-3-year-old twins and I to do together each day. Today I want to share those activities with you! Many of the crafts are ideas I got from other places- click on the item in the list below the graphic to go to those links and get a full description. Because I sometimes only see them for the morning get-out-the-door rush and then right before bed, many of the things I planned are ones that can be done in 5 minutes or less. On the days that I know I have more time, I planned more involved outings and activities. So here the are, not at all in the order we will be doing them:

1. Put up the Christmas tree
2. Hang a felt tree (I have one like this)
3. Pinecone Christmas tree craft 
4. Decorate the Christmas tree
5. Hang Christmas lights
6. Make Christmas cards
7. Go see a Christmas lights display
8. Bake sugar cookies
9. Decorate sugar cookies
10. Deliver cookies to friends
11. Gingerbread man craft 
12. Gingerbread houses (found some good tips to keep it simple here)
13. Visit Santa
14. Wrap Christmas presents
15. Call extended family to wish them Merry Christmas
16. Take family pictures
17. Get out the nativity set (I have this one which is great for this age)
18. Scribble on large paper to use to wrap presents
19. Hand print reindeer craft
20. Marshmallow snowmen (something like this picture)
21. Read a new Christmas book
22. Read a new Christmas book (yes, we are doing this twice!)
23. Stained glass ornament craft
24. Play with snow dough

P.S. Did you notice that several items are things that I have on my own to-do list anyway, like putting up decorations and wrapping presents? This way they get to be involved in the process, and it's one less thing for me to worry about. Cha-ching! :)

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Teacher Tuesday: removable score notes

Welcome back to Teacher Tuesday! Today I have a quick tip using one of my favorite tools again: washi tape! I have recently started using it to make notes in my original scores for my choir classes.

I used to make a photocopy of the original score for every song I did with my choirs so that I could write my own notes about things I want to remember to teach, conducting cues I don't want to forget, or changes I make to the original arrangement (usually to simplify for my younger groups). I would use the photocopy with all my notes for rehearsals and then use the original score for performance.

Problem: I sometimes want my notes in the performance too! I will confess, I still get nervous in performances, even after more than 2 decades of performing and almost a decade of teaching and conducting. I need my notes to remember what cues to give, which vocal part to focus on, etc in the performance. I have to use the original score to follow copyright correctly, but I don't want to mark up the originals.

Enter washi tape!

Any time I want to make a note in the score, I just get a piece of washi tape, stick it in, and write over it. When I'm done, or I change my mind, I can take it out without damaging the score. Score! (Sorry, couldn't stop myself from using that pun...) Now I just use my original scores for rehearsals as well. The thicker paper is much easier to use, and I can easily color-code my notes with different color tape (cues in blue, rehearsal notes in yellow etc, or sopranos green, altos red etc), and they are actually easier to read on the tape than they are when I write them straight onto the paper. So many advantages to this system!

P.S. Have you checked out the Cyber Monday deals on teacherspayteachers? 28% off everything in my store is hard to beat! It ends today (December 2nd) so don't forget to empty your cart before midnight and enter the discount code at checkout!

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Mommy Monday: muffin tin advent calendar

I'm so excited to share today's Mommy idea with you- an easy DIY advent calendar that is so flexible and cheap! I wish I could take credit for the idea, but I found it on Pinterest. There are lots of people who have done different versions of it but I was first inspired by this picture.

The basic idea is to use a mini-muffin tin (which happens to have 24 cups) as a fillable advent calendar. Just stick something in each cup and cover them up, and it's just like those paper ones that you open up each day to find a little chocolate- EXCEPT IT'S REUSABLE! Genius.

Of course, you know me, I loved the idea but wanted to put my own spin on it. I'm not a huge fan of giving out candy, but I am beyond excited about starting some fun family traditions and really building the excitement this advent season. Last year the girls were approaching 2, so they definitely did understand some of the build-up to Christmas, but they didn't really have the ability to think about something happening the next day, let alone 24 days away, at that age. This year they are about to turn 3 and IT IS GOING TO BE AWESOME. I decided I wanted to try to have some kind of little activity related to advent/Christmas to do each day to really help us focus on family and enjoying time together rather than on gifts or Santa.

I made up a list of things that I want us to do together in December- everything from decorating the tree and baking cookies to reading a new Christmas book and making cards for other family members. I included some simple crafts, some outings, and also several really quick activities (like a book, or a phone call to a distant relative) to take into account their sometimes-busy schedule. Then I went through and figured out when we could do each activity based on our schedule, and made some little notes for each activity with a picture (to give the girls a clue). I just used random clipart and made it in Word:

Then I printed it out and cut out each strip, folded them up, and put them in the corresponding cup in my muffin tin.

Next up was the covers for each cup to show the days. I really wanted to do something that had the characters from the nativity story, since I wanted that to be our focus. I looked at a lot of pre-made templates that others had used for their own muffin tin advent calendars, but couldn't find any that I really liked, so I decided to make my own. I found this cute clipart on Etsy from songinmyheart, added the numbers to show each day, and printed those off as well.

From looking at other templates it seemed like most people had done 12 to a letter-size page, so I figured I would just do the same (aka I was too lazy to measure my muffin tin and figure it out). I wish I had made each one a bit smaller but I figure slightly too big is better than slightly too small?!? Oh well.

After printing them off I stuck them on my handy-dandy adhesive magnet sheets that I have been using for everything and LOVE. Cut out the squares and bam!

I love this calendar so much. I love that I made it, I love that I had an excuse to buy a mini muffin tin, and I love that I can use it for years to come and hopefully keep it as a family tradition. I can't wait for the girls to see it this morning! I will update on facebook with their reaction :)

What holiday traditions do you most treasure in your family? Share your thoughts below!

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Cyber Monday Sale!

Yippee! It's time for a sale! TeachersPayTeachers is having a site-wide sale on December 1st and 2nd for Cyber Monday, and you can get 28% off every item in my store with the code TPTCYBER. I've got a couple of things I'm super excited about as both a seller and a buyer:

1. My Japanese lesson set bundle

Have you seen the new bundle in my store? These folk song lessons are a labor of love- all of the songs are my favorites from my childhood in Japan, and each one comes with native speaker recordings, sheet music, slides and printables to add instruments or teach musical concepts from the song, and facts about Japan. They have everything you need to incorporate them into your lessons or do a stand-alone unit on songs from Japan. Each of them is available separately as well, but you get all 3 for 20% off with the bundle, and you will get all my future Japanese song sets for free!

And don't forget about my organizing sheets and planner sets. This is a great time to get organized so that you are ready for January! These planning sheets for the new national music standards have been a great way for me to organize my long-range planning around the new standards.

2. Christmas Freeze Dance and Creative Movement from Tracy King

I have these in my cart and ready to go- I need something new and fresh for dance breaks in my classes in the lead-up to winter break! My students have been getting more and more antsy as standardized testing takes over their learning. They come to my room ready to move, so we have been doing a lot of dance breaks :) These sets are a great twist on dancing games and also help them expand their movement repertoire. Love it!

3. Emotions - Posters and Writing Worksheet from ARTrageous Fun

With all of the behavior issues we have had at our school the last couple of years, we have been really pushing emotional literacy. One of the concepts I want to emphasize more this year is performing with expression- I really want to help students experience the ways they can express their feelings through music. These visual aids for feelings will be a great way to talk about a range of emotions and use them in my lessons (I'll have to share more about my ideas for this after I've tried it out in my classes... wink wink!). 

I'm also linking up with Amy Abbott on Music a la Abbott- check out the linky party to see more great resources for music teachers to add to your cart for the sale!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Happy Shopping :)

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