We had so much fun celebrating the different holidays this past year! The 2015 fall and winter holiday season started off in November with our annual Thanksgiving Pow Wow and continued on with our unique Rugrats tradition of celebrating the 5 Days of Christmas.
Making Indian corn with pretty buttons was a fun project for little fingers and good practice for small motor development. A perfect little craft for the end of fall. And dancing to the loud drums of traditional Native American pow wow music and sporting handmade necklaces created out of colorful macaroni, topped off the happy day for our Thanksgiving Pow Wow at Rugrats. Enjoying a "friendly feast" and some pumpkin pie with our daycare family is also a must for this special day.
In December, the focus is on a week filled with Christmas fun with each day dedicated to an icon of Christmastime. For Snowman Day, we had a wild indoor snowball fight and made snow globes from little plastic water bottles! On Gingerbread Man Day, the focus was on creating a plate full of ginger-boys that tasted pretty good at lunch time! On Nutcracker Day, the floor was covered with the remains of all kinds of nuts cracked with all kinds of nutcrackers, and all over the place! The kids are still playing the Nutcracker story and dressing up to be Clara, The Nutcracker Prince and of course, The Mouse King!
During Santa Day, everyone became Santa, his elves or the reindeer. Sometimes all of the above at the same time! The toys were shoved into big red bags and given to each other as wonderful gifts on pretend Christmas morning! They played Santa with joy all afternoon and created one-of-a-kind Christmas cards to take home. Then on Jesus Day, they painted a special sparkly angel decoration because the angels sang a beautiful song on the day that Baby Jesus was born, and we all participate in His birthday with Christmas trees, beautiful decorations, giving gifts and singing. And a little gift in a Christmas lunchbox present made celebrating Jesus Day the best of all!
Each one of these special days brought its share of new and fun free-play ideas and the hours of unique play experiences are part of this happy time in the family of childcare.
At my house, celebrating the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas have always been a very important part of my life, and I hope that the memories that I am creating for my childcare children will give them warm, loving feelings about these holidays and stay in their hearts forever, long after I have gone.
Making Indian corn with pretty buttons was a fun project for little fingers and good practice for small motor development. A perfect little craft for the end of fall. And dancing to the loud drums of traditional Native American pow wow music and sporting handmade necklaces created out of colorful macaroni, topped off the happy day for our Thanksgiving Pow Wow at Rugrats. Enjoying a "friendly feast" and some pumpkin pie with our daycare family is also a must for this special day.
In December, the focus is on a week filled with Christmas fun with each day dedicated to an icon of Christmastime. For Snowman Day, we had a wild indoor snowball fight and made snow globes from little plastic water bottles! On Gingerbread Man Day, the focus was on creating a plate full of ginger-boys that tasted pretty good at lunch time! On Nutcracker Day, the floor was covered with the remains of all kinds of nuts cracked with all kinds of nutcrackers, and all over the place! The kids are still playing the Nutcracker story and dressing up to be Clara, The Nutcracker Prince and of course, The Mouse King!
During Santa Day, everyone became Santa, his elves or the reindeer. Sometimes all of the above at the same time! The toys were shoved into big red bags and given to each other as wonderful gifts on pretend Christmas morning! They played Santa with joy all afternoon and created one-of-a-kind Christmas cards to take home. Then on Jesus Day, they painted a special sparkly angel decoration because the angels sang a beautiful song on the day that Baby Jesus was born, and we all participate in His birthday with Christmas trees, beautiful decorations, giving gifts and singing. And a little gift in a Christmas lunchbox present made celebrating Jesus Day the best of all!
Each one of these special days brought its share of new and fun free-play ideas and the hours of unique play experiences are part of this happy time in the family of childcare.
At my house, celebrating the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas have always been a very important part of my life, and I hope that the memories that I am creating for my childcare children will give them warm, loving feelings about these holidays and stay in their hearts forever, long after I have gone.
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