Seasonal - The Mommy Teacher

5 Nativity Favorites for Kids

Chatting with my friend Allie this morning about the kid’s nativity sets and books that our kids love, I knew I needed to share all of our favorites along with Part 1 of the Nativity Templates I made.

Allie really recommends this one:

Fisher-Price Little People Nativity Playset

Her kids play with it a lot and sing along to the music. It lights up so they like to play with with the lights off too.

I want this (I love advent calendars and felt boards):

Kubla Crafts Nativity Fabric Advent Calendar

Here are the 3 books we absolutely LOVE (see if your local library has them):

Finally, here is Part One of the templates that I made as an extension activity to all that you are doing learning about the birth of Jesus:

The templates I made are GREAT to use as play dough mats, dry-erase tracing mats, patterns to put along side your paper as you draw the pictures shape by shape, and using for construction paper art.

This Part 1 of the templates include: Joseph and Mary, an Angel, a Star, and baby Jesus.

It is included in my membership because I sell this template set on TeachersPayTeachers, but you can get it included in the membership for just $5 right now (limited time price).

Here is a quick little YouTube video for using the angel template:

December 13, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Guiding Santa’s Sleigh {Creative Writing}

I was reading this book:

Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight?

and I’m in the 24 days of Christmas Printables mode.

So, I decided to give make a template for it… meanwhile I have “Run, Run, Rudolph” stuck in my head and I don’t know any of the other lyrics.

This template can be used however you would like. You can white-out my writing prompt if you come up with a better idea for it (and if you do, please share it).

But, I am using it as a creative writing (or drawing) template to do after reading the adorable book “Who will guide my sleigh tonight?”

Click HERE if ya want it!

December 12, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

What Does Not Belong?

Recently, at a birthday party, Sean Patrick was given a little activity book of hidden pictures as a party favor. We had a great time working on this little booklet together and we ended up talking about the bigger pictures on each page as well as the hidden images.

So, I wanted to make a “bigger picture” that led to even better discussions.

This can set up great conversation for discussing the nativity setting (where the birth of Jesus took place). The “characters” (who was at the birth of Jesus) including who is not pictured. And much more. Leave a comment if you do this so I can learn from what came out of your conversations.

You can also talk about what was not there – a car is “silly” to be in the picture because when Jesus was a baby people went from place to place by walking. They didn’t have cars.

People wore sandals not tennis shoes. I’m trying to give you ideas here discussing the hidden images as prompts but I’m kind of running out haha.

The Wise Men brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, not pencils and paintbrushes.

Visual discrimination is a great skill for kids to learn. They have to concentrate, focus, and isolate objects which is easy for us, but difficult for kids who are still learning what the objects are called.

You don’t have to print this… you can pull it up on your computer and you can search for the hidden images on the screen and click “edit” on the PDF and put a circle image around it when they find each picture.

Click HERE to get it!

December 11, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Elf on the Shelf Art

Casey is subbing for her son’s class next week and was brainstorming an activity to do with the students. Casey is so good at coming with Elf on the Shelf ideas that I thought it would be cute if she did an Elf on the Shelf Art and Writing activity with his class.

My former co-worker had her students make an elf using construction paper and measure their elves using paper strips of cube towers.

elf art

elf measure

So, I thought it would be helpful to come up with a template.
I made a single page elf template:

An elf template for coloring an elf on the shelf in detail.

And I also made multiple pages of shapes for tracing and cutting out the template to make a large construction paper elf.
I also added a writing page so that older kids could give their elf a story.

When I sell activities like this on TeachersPayTeachers I also make them available for members. My membership is currently at an all time low price but will go up.

Click HERE to get the templates. They are included in my membership (which is just $5 a year) OR you can purchase them for just $1.50 in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

“Like” and keep up with our album: 24 Days of Christmas Printables! I post freebies every few days!

December 10, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Candy Cane Pattern Starters

I like using seasonal and fun things like candy canes to teach about things that I want Sean Patrick to learn or to practice.

Sean Patrick is familiar with patterns and he likes to finger-paint a lot, but he still needs a lot of practice so we are still working with AB patterns.

So, we are going to finish these patterns by taking turns.

For the first candy cane I will paint one color and he will paint the next.

Then, we will switch for the second candy cane. He will paint with the color I used the first time, and then I will paint with the other color.

Finally, I am going to ask him if he wants to make up another pattern on a blank template.

Here is a short video of us painting our second template – it is spur of the moment iPhone videoing so you get to see the real-life clip of our flighty pattern painting moment.

Click HERE to get the templates. They are included in my membership (which is just $5 a year) OR you can purchase them for just $1 in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

December 9, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments