Christmas Crafts Linky Party

When I saw this Christmas craft Linky Party over at Teaching Blog Addict I got pretty excited because Christmas and Halloween are my two favorite holidays for crafts and activities.  Here are a couple crafts/activities that I do in my classroom. 

Santa's Cookie Plate

I buy the chargers at Target every year.  They are in the dollar bin and come in silver, gold, and I think red.  My kids get to pick between making an angel, Christmas tree, or a Santa Claus.  This does get a little messy and could take a long time to complete, so I recommend doing a few a day and having a volunteer present for extra help/clean up. 

The tree isn't all the way complete.  She still had to add a trunk and decorate, but I hope you get the idea.  I let my kids use puff paint for ornaments.  I don't have a picture of the angel, but they use their feet in blue paint.  The heel is where the face would go  and then they use one hand on each side in white paint for their wings.  This was popular with my girls. 

Mystery Santa

One thing I did last year that I loved and will be doing every year that I am a first grade teacher is a "Mystery Package".  I came up with this idea because I had a few boys last year that didn't believe in Santa or were questioning the fact that he was a real person.  After overhearing much of this talk I got right to work.  About 2-3 weeks before break I had my kids write letters to Santa.  We worked on addressing the labels and I took them to good ole Macy's to be sent off. 

Within a about a week or two after sending the letters the kids got this delivered to our room........................

 It was so real because I spoke to our UPS man and he came in to deliver the package (so it must be the real thing).  My kids about died!  On top of the big box was a large letter rolled up that read, "read before opening" - Santa.  The letter explained how he got the letters, and he sent us some goodies and supplies for his  secret recipe (magic reindeer food).  I make this every year and my kids love it!  I had all the baggies and everything for the food inside the box.  That is also great for teaching how-to writing.

I also went to the hardware store and got about 10 old keys for my kids who didn't have chimneys.  I spray painted them gold and tied a ribbon around them with a note that said Santa's Key.  I wrote to my parents ahead of time to make sure I got a list of kids who needed key.  I placed these inside a pretty box and put the keys inside the mystery box sent by Santa..  There was a list inside the box with the kids who needed them.   They were definitely believers after that! 

This insn't the actual key I made because mine isn't saved on my computer anymore.  I have a feeling it was erased when our computer crashed. : (  I found this one on etsy, but you can easily make your own and jazz it up a bit.