Have Yourself a Meaningful Little Christmas-The Christmas Tree

Well, there was (and still is) a little drama surrounding the usage of Christmas trees. Some have considered them Pagan, they have been outlawed, contested, etc. But I like to think of the evergreen as a symbol of eternal spirit.  Evergreens are green all year round, and like our spirit—stays vibrant and beautiful all year round. Today I am sharing a few ideas of how we can teach children about the symbol of the Christmas tree while also addressing the educational basics of math, literacy, science and music.

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Botany {plant identification}

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If you live in a climate with an abundance of conifers, get bundled up and take a walk outside! 

Pine Cone Identification Chart

University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point has tree identification cards that can be used to help your budding botanists identify the conifers in their surrounding area. They include pictures of the bark, needles/leaves, cones, fruit and other features of the tree for identification. There are also tons of plant identification resources on Pinterest.

You can create a baggy book by placing samples of the conifers inside of plastic bags and matching them with the plant identification cards. See The "Unworking" Mom's blog for a great tutorial on making baggy books! Martina Huppertová also has a pretty cool tutorial on YouTube about how to make baggy books out of gift bags rather than plastic bags.

And my favorite conifer-related song (okay, it also the only one I know--but that doesn't take away from it's awesomeness):  "C is for Conifer" by They Might be Giants.

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Math {patterned counting}

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I created a Skip Counting Christmas Tree to give my crafty daughter a chance to work with number patterns. You can get the FREE template for the craft at my TPT store. The pieces of the tree need to be cut out, and then write a number on each piece of the tree to represents a skip count sequence from the smallest to largest number. I made trees for counting by twos, fives, tens and one hundred. I encouraged my daughter to pick one number piece, and then she found the other corresponding pieces. She then chose two number pattern trees to glue on construction paper and created a winter scene.

For smaller learners you can also just count by ones. The size of the pieces of the tree will reinforce the comparison of numbers since the smallest number will be on the smallest piece of the tree, and the largest number will be on the largest part of the tree. You can also use this craft for those learning the order of the alphabet. You can write one letter of the alphabet on each tree—or—for older children, write a word on each tree and have them place the words in descending alphabetical order.

  

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Literacy & Reading {Deeper Meaning Craft}

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From http://www.mynameissnickerdoodle.com/

Here is a new take on a preschool Christmas craft favorite. Many of you may be aware of the cute Christmas wreaths you and your kiddos can make with cut outs of their hands. To ante up on the Christmas spirit and encourage reading and handwriting skills, you can write words on the hands/berries/bows/wherever they fit that relate to the symbolism of the Christmas wreath.

As I mentioned, the Christmas tree is significant because it stays "ever green" like our spirit. When the evergreen is shaped in the fashion of a circle, it reinforces the idea of eternity—like a circle, our spirit goes on forever.

 You can have a casual conversation with your child(ren) about the eternal nature of our spirit when you are cutting out the hands. {These casual conversations really pique my daughter's interest!} Then ask, "What do you think about when you hear the word 'spirit'?" Try again with words like "eternity" or "evergreen" or "circle". The key here is to aid in the creation of "mind maps" that facilitate a deep understanding and connection to the physical and spiritual world.  Have fun!

 

~*Merry Christmas*~