Star Santa: a great project for home!

by Kelli Lewis

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So, the kids are out for winter break, but the Big Guy isn’t slated to come for a few more days. Since Santa is all that’s really on their minds (let’s be real), here’s a fun craft to make with your little ones at home!

What you’ll need:

• red construction paper, cut into star-shaped pieces (about the size of a small paper plate)
• cotton balls
• markers or crayons
• scissors
• hole punch
• ribbon
• glue stick

What to do:

1. After creating stars out of the red construction paper, lay the star flat on a table in front of you. Be sure that one of the star’s points is at the top.
2. Create Santa’s face on the top point of the star, leaving the very top of the point for his “hat.” Pull some cotton from the cotton balls for his beard and brim of his hat. Use the markers or crayons to draw eyes, a nose and a mouth for his face.
3. The middle of the star will serve as his body. Use markers or crayons to draw buttons for his suit. You can also use more cotton for the bottom lining of his suit.
4. The other 4 points will serve as Santa’s arms (the two points pointing to the left and right) and legs (the two points pointing down). Arms: Add cotton to the end of his sleeves on his suit. Be sure to leave small triangles for the very tip to serve as his hands. Legs: Use markers or crayons to draw black boots for his shoes. This will be done by creating small triangles at the very end tip of the two points that are the legs.
5. Punch a hole in the top of the star (Santa’s head/hat).
6. Tie ribbon through the hole to create a way to hang your ornament! Or, to make a magnet, add a magnetic strip to the back.

Congratulations! You’ve just gotten yourself 30 minutes closer to Santa’s arrival.

Kelli Lewis is a current education graduate student at The University of Georgia and a regular contributor to A Learning Experience.

Homemade Ornaments (great at-home project!)

by Kelli Lewis

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Want to get your students (or your own children!) in the true holiday spirit? Try bonding together by creating something unique and special! Here’s an idea to get children thinking of others by using their art and math skills to make an ornament.

You can use the below recipe for air-dry clay. Children have lots of fun helping measure (math tie-in!) and mix. But here’s the catch to this project: the ornament they make is not for them to keep. They must give it away! If you do this activity with a class or group of children, they can have an ornament exchange afterward (by drawing each others’ names out of bowl). If you do this at home, challenge your children to think of someone (a friend, neighbor, sibling) that they would like to give their ornament to.

Here’s a simple recipe for making air-dry clay ornaments that was found at www.dltk-kids.com.

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. powdered alum
• 1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
• boiling water (amount varies depending on your humidity)
• food colouring

1. Combine flour, salt, and alum in a mixing bowl
2. Add vegetable oil.
3. Slowly add boiling water, stirring the entire time.  Dough should not be sticky.
4. Break dough into separate portions if desired.
5. Add food coloring and knead until it is incorporated (your hands may get a bit messy here).Children can form clay into wreaths, stockings, or any other holiday or wintry shape. Cookie cutters work well, too! Flatter shapes are ideal because they will dry well. Make sure that at least part of the shape is open, as well, to allow for a ribbon to be looped through for hanging once it’s dry.
6. Let dry 48 hours in a warm, breezy location.
7. OPTIONAL:  Paint with clear nail polish or varnish once dry to better preserve the ornament.
8. Store for up to a month in an airtight container.

Once the ornaments are dry, children can make a card or wrap them, and then they can enjoy the delight on the recipient’s face when they give their ornament away!

Kelli Lewis is a graduate student at The University of Georgia who is chock-full of great ideas and insights. We’re so glad she shares them with us at A Learning Experience!

Gingerbread Man Math

by Kelli Lewis

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Why not get into the holiday spirit by baking cookies and learning math at the same time?

By using the following gingerbread man recipe (or any recipe, really), you can incorporate math concepts with a festive, hands-on activity.

Here’s how:

1. Gather all materials and ingredients (listed below).
2. Make the cookies with your class, calling on student volunteers to measure and add the various ingredients. Give everyone a chance to stir.
3. While you’re mixing and measuring, discuss the measurements with your students: “If we need 1 ½ cups of flour, what are some ways I could measure this out using the measuring cups?” Students may respond by using the measuring cups for 1 cup along with the ½ cup.
4. Now challenge the students to think of ways to measure the flour if you did not have the measuring cup for 1 cup: “Could we still make the cookies if we didn’t have the measuring cups for 1 cup nor the ½ cup? What if you only had the measuring cup for ¼ cup?” Explain to your students that these are real world situations that you may run into when cooking. Sharing your own stories of when you used math to cook will make the activity even more relevant and memorable.
5. After you make the dough (and chill it according to the recipe, below), give each student a piece of wax paper for their desk. Add a small amount of flour to the wax paper and then give each student a small ball of dough. They can press the dough (or take turns using rolling pins to roll it out) to 1/8-inch thickness (they can even use their rulers to measure!) before cutting out their gingerbread man.
6. You can either ascertain permission to use the kitchen’s oven to bake the cookies at school (a parent volunteer is helpful to take the cookies to and from the kitchen while you stay with your class in the classroom), or you can take the cookies home to bake them and bring them back. (To make sure each student gets his or her own cookie back, label foil-lined cookie sheets with students’ names in permanent marker, and place each child’s cookie on the foil by his/her name).

Materials List:

• medium mixing bowl
• mixing/stirring spoons
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• refrigerator
• oven
• baking sheet
• cooking spray
• gingerbread man cookie cutter
• wire racks
• decorative containers/bags to store finished cookies in

Gingerbread Men Recipe (from Allrecipes.com):

*Yields: 2 ½ dozen (Calories 79, Total Fat: 3.3g per serving)

* Time: total of about 1 hour & 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 (3.5 ounce) package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix

• 1/2 cup butter

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the dry butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon; stir into the pudding mixture. Cover, and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking sheets. On a floured board, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into man shapes using a cookie cutter. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are golden at the edges. Cool on wire racks.

Kelli Lewis is a graduate student at The University of Georgia and a regular contributor to A Learning Experience.

Seasonal Similes: Teaching Similes with The Polar Express

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Every year around this time, it’s a constant battle to keep students’ attention, isn’t it? I mean, who can compete with presents, parties and a much anticipated two-week vacation?!

Well, I’ve found that rather than fight the season, you might as well run with it. When I apply this if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em attitude to my lesson plans, I find a world of new inspiration. Take holiday story books, for instance. One of my favorites is The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. It just so happens that this book is chock full of similes and metaphors; there’s practically one on every page. Here’s my lesson plan to teach these literary elements via this classic Christmas tale:

1. First, define simile and metaphor as a class. (Simile= a comparison between two unlike things, using the words like or as, i.e. “Lights flickered in the distance. They looked LIKE the lights of a strange ocean liner sailing on a frozen sea.” Metaphor= a comparison between two unlike things that does NOT use the words like or as, i.e. “[The train] was wrapped in an apron of steam.”
2. Come up with your own examples as a class. [The sun is like a large, yellow beach ball suspended in the sky (simile). Or: The tree’s branches were arms lifted toward the clouds (metaphor).]
3. Then, tell the class you’re going to read The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. Every time they hear a simile, they should wave one hand at you. Every time they hear a metaphor, they should wave two hands.
4. As you read and they wave, stop to write the similes and metaphors on the board, while students record them in their notebooks (or on paper). A two-columned chart (T-chart) works great for this, with similes in one column and metaphors in the other (there will be quite a few more similes than metaphors).
5. Once you’re done with the book, discuss as a class why Chris Van Allsburg included similes and metaphors: How did they help you visualize the scenes?
6. Give each student a piece of white construction paper, and have them choose one simile or metaphor from the book to illustrate. They can write the simile or metaphor at the bottom as a caption.
7. Hang up their simile illustrations around the room…and then congratulate yourself on capitalizing on the holiday merriment with a teachable moment!

Other great seasonal story books to check out:

The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polaccho~ a classic tale of Hanukkah.
The Night Before Christmas Pop-Up by Clement Clark Moore and Robert Sabuda~ an ingeniously amazing pop-up book depicting this classic tale.
Humphrey’s First Christmas by Carol Sever~ Christmas retold from the perspective of the Wise Men’s camel, Humphrey.

Submitted by Elizabeth Cossick, M.Ed.