December 8 - 14 -- Nutcracker

Suggested Song Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Suggested Snack Peanutbutter and Jelly Sandwiches

Monday		Ballerina (and train) snowflakes.  Active moment: Dance to some of the music from the nutcracker
Tuesday		Nativity "Go fish"
Wednesday		Tell the story of the nutcracker
Thursday		Watch a Christmas show
Friday		Dance to some of the different dances from the Nutcracker and talk about Christmas there.

December 1 - 7 -- Traditions / Smells

Suggested Song		"Tradition" from Fiddler On The Roof;  Change the words to fit your family
Suggested Snack		A snack your families had growing up that you might not have often now.  We might have cinnamon toast or Scottish Date Nut cookies.  Also, gingerbread cookies.

Monday		Apple cinnamon ornaments (NON-edible, but smell good).  Making, but not painting.  Supplies: apple sauce, a lot of cinnamon, white glue, plastic wrap, wax paper, straw, string or yarn, cookie cutters, rolling pin, paints, crayons, markers. Active moment: dancing.  Overview: To introduce the song tradition, watch it and dance to it.  Practice the grapevine step beforehand (demonstrated for kids here after a short commercial).  This could lead to a good family discussion about your traditions.
Tuesday		Homemade moon sand.  I do these in my kitchen for easy clean-up.  We are going to change the recipe from apple to gingerbread sand.  Supplies:  play sand, corn starch, water, scent (ginger?), powdered paint (crushed sidewalk chalk). Active moment:  Tell a funny family story and then act it out together.
Wednesday		Decorate and hang Non-edible apple cinnamon ornaments.  Make some to put on gifts for the neighbors.  Supplies:  apple cinnamon ornaments from Monday, string or yarn, paints, crayons markers. Cooking: gingerbread cookies.  Save some to decorate tomorrow.  Disclaimer:  I've never made either of these recipes.  Option 1.  Said to have not as strong of a gingerbread flavor and does not require molasses.  Supplies:   Cook and server butterscotch pudding mix, butter, brown sugar, egg, flour, soda, ginger, cinnamon.  Option 2.  Flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, unsalted butter, dark brown sugar, egg, molasses, vanilla, lemon zest (optional).
Thursday		Decorate gingerbread cookies.  Supplies: icing, plastic bag, scissors, candies (optional).  Can practice decorating these adorable play dough mats first, with play dough or icing.  (They also have a lot of other cute, free items.)  Wrap and deliver to neighbors. Active moment:  walking or even carefully skipping to deliver the cookies to the neighbors.
Friday		Gingerbread man story.  Preparation:  practice telling the story and don't forget to start with "A long time ago...".  If you want visual aids to tell it on a flannel board or with puppets, you could prepare these.  Talk about how it is a story that has been passed down from one generation to the next, just like some of your family traditions have been passed down. Active moment:  Gingerbread man activity.  Talk about and practice how each of the different characters in the story might have chased the gingerbread man (ex: old man bent over and shaking fist, old woman holding skirts up, pig on all fours snorting, etc...) then take turns being the gingerbread man (boy, girl) and the character discussed and chasing each other around.  Could even add characters for a variety of ways to chase, such as a turkey that waddles and flaps, a snake that slithers, etc...  Let them come up with the animals. Decorate Christmas letters.  Supplies:  Christmas letters to send, markers or crayons, cards to put the letters in.  I'm sending out Christmas cards with letters this year.  Really I am.  Since my color printer is out of ink, I'm going to let the kids decorate the back of the letters I'm sending out to add a bit of color.  I'll also tell them how my grandmas and their grandmas have all had the tradition of mailing out Christmas cards.

December Overview

December's Overall Theme is Giving / Christmas.

Here are the themes for the coming weeks.  We will be doing at least one decoration / ornament per week.

December 1 - 7		Traditions / Smells
December 8 - 14		Nutcracker
December 15 - 21		Giving / Receiving Graciously
December 22 - 29		Family / Traditions / Christmas
December 30 - January 5		Winter

November 24 - 30 -- Thanksgiving

Suggested Song  For Health and Strength 

Suggested Snack  The healthy snack that they are most grateful for

Monday  Thank you cards.  Try to do one each every day this week.  Supplies: Paper or thank you card, envelope, crayons, markers, stamps.  Cranberry spoon race.  Supplies:  spoons, cups, cranberries (I might use craisins).

Tuesday  Gratitude Jar.  Supplies: Jars, gratitude papers, pens, pencils, crayons.

Wednesday  Gratitude Tree.  It's cute with leaves, but my kids really love making Valentines right now, so I picked this style instead.  Supplies: vase or bottle, branches, ribbon or string, hearts, crayons, watercolors or whatever you want to decorate them with.  Could even use leaves and do leaf rubbing hearts.  I'm thankful for treasure hunt.  Send the kids on a treasure hunt to find those things that they love.  Or have them send you on a hunt by giving you clues about what it is they love.

Thursday  Practice saying "Thank you" to those at Thanksgiving.

Friday  Practicing gift giving and grateful receiving.  Supplies: paper, tape (optional), random things the kids pick from around the house.

My extra prep:  Print out and fold thank you cards.  Make them fit existing envelopes.  Cut out hearts.

November 17 - 23 -- Pilgrims and Native Americans

Song Suggestions  A Thanksgiving Song
Snack Suggestions  Cornbread with homemade butter (see Tuesday Activity), Popcorn, Cucumber canoes (hollow out canoe and fill with a yogurt and veggie based healthy dip.  See here at bottom for more details.)

Good Resource  Scholastic News gives a good, simple overview of Pilgrims and Indians.
Monday  Read the Scholastic News with the kids.  Build pilgrim houses.  Supplies: Craft sticks, glue (optional) and grass or green paper.
Tuesday  Make butter.  Play Hide and Seek.  Supplies:  Large carton of whipping cream, salt, food processor, calendula petals (optional).
Wednesday  Floating Mayflower boats.  Option 1 (Supplies: empty applesauce cup, brown paint, craft sticks, paper, scissors, glue, play dough) or Option 2 (Supplies: sponge, craft knife, craft stick, duct tape, marker (optional)).
Thursday  Pulling corn OFF the cob.  Supplies: Indian corn, tweezers (optional).  Save the cobs and husks.  Follow My Leader game.
Friday  Sunflower hangings and bird feeders.    Supplies (corn kernals, empty corn cobs, corn husks, peanut butter, birdseed, string).

November 10 - 16 -- Turkeys, Corn and Farming

Song Suggestions   The Farmer in the Dell, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, The Wheels on the Tractor
Snack Suggestions  Turkey Peppers and Hummus

Monday  Toilet Paper Tube Farm Animals  Supplies:  Toilet Paper Rolls (cut into 1" pieces), Cotton Balls, black and pink pompoms, orange pipecleaner, various colors of contstruction paper, black marker, googly eyes, scissors, glue
Tuesday  Pink Piggy Banks  Supplies:  Old water bottle, pink acrylic paint, paintbrush, craft knife, black marker, pink paper, glue, scissors.  This is meant for 5-year-olds.  I will be doing it with my two year old, so I will be doing all the cutting and most of the marker.  I'll let her paint, glue, and add a few creative marker designs.
Wednesday  Letter T Tractor  Supplies:  Red and black construction paper, their printable template, scissors, glue
Thursday  Turkey Finger Puppets  Supplies:  Orange, Yellow, Red, White, Black and Brown felt;  needle; thread or sewing floss (white and brown); glue
Friday  Fall Farm Sensory Tub  Supplies:  Unpopped popcorn, uncooked rice, lentils, farm themed toys

November 3 - 9 -- Fall / Autumn

Since this is the first week and I'm scrambling to get this going, I just have a brief description with a few links.  Hopefully as we go along I'll give more items for the schedule and maybe even some songs and games to go along with them.  I'm also hoping to have a list of needed items for the different crafts and activities to help you with your planning.

Song  It's Autumn Time
Monday  Contact paper and tissue paper leaves
Tuesday  Leaf wreaths
Wednesday  Water dumping game
Thursday  Owl Puppets -- Templates and instructions; Variation with leaves
Friday  Pumpkin Playdough I love their instructions with pictures.  I am just planning on making the playdough orange and adding some pumpkin pie spice to it.

Welcome and November Overview

This new blog will list planned activities for my toddler and preschooler for the week.  Links to the posts that gave me the ideas will also be listed.  Hopefully this will help you as you try to plan out your week.  Each month will have an overall theme.  Then each week will have a sub-theme.  WARNING:  If we don't get to a craft one week (and there will usually be quite a few we don't make it to), then it will very possibly be reused the next week.

I am planning on posting the upcoming week's plan on Friday evening.  This way if you need to get supplies for something you would like to do, you will have the entire weekend to do it.
November's Overall Theme is Thanksgiving.

Here are the theme's for the coming weeks.

November 3 - 9	Fall / Autumn
November 10 - 16	Turkeys, Corn, and Farming
November 17 - 23	Pilgrims and Native Americans
November 24 - 30	Thanksgiving

Hopefully you find these plans helpful.