With Christmas quickly approaching and our to-do list ever growing; we may wonder how to keep the kids busy and focused in the right direction. One of my favorite holiday projects has been to make placemats for the Advent Christmas season with an easy cut and paste method that helps to keep those important reasons for the holiday season in clear view.
We save Christmas cards sent to us each year so we have an abundance lying around and its great way to up-cycle them. Then we trim and glue them in collage fashion on large 11 x 14 inch construction paper. There may be a special Christmas card sent from cousins overseas last year or ones from grandparents and close friends.
I start by clipping the corners of the construction paper then place it on top of holiday wrapping paper and cut around it. Now I trim the wrapping paper one inch all around and glue it in the middle.
One year we wrote Happy Birthday Jesus on holiday stationary to add in! I even added Language Arts by having the children write a sensory poem to glue in the middle then add all the Christmas cards around it.
We retell the Nativity Story by using those types of Christmas cards and gluing them onto the paper. Some cards even have the names of Jesus on them written in beautiful script: Prince of Peace, Immanuel, Messiah. We cut those out to use as embellishments. The dollar store is a great place to find inexpensive cards if you don’t have any to use or throw a Trade Old Christmas Card’s Party. When finished, laminate the placemats inexpensively at the local teacher’s store or Office Max. Little ones love to sit and eat all through the season on these festive placemats! They can recount the nativity story scene by scene and keep the most important things in front of them.
For more crafts visit my blog Homeschooling for Jesus.
Jan May is author of New Millennium Girl Books: Christian mid-grade novels for girls and interactive creative writing books that hook even the reluctant writers! She is also a fifteen year homeschool veteran and creative writing teacher. Jan enjoys igniting creativity in children and believes that given the right tools and encouragement, any child can write and love it!
This article was originally published on our Homeschool Launch Blog.
The Christmas season is a wonderful time of year to instill in your children the joy of giving.
How are you instilling the joy of giving in your kids?
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