Free preschool lesson unit: Five senses of Christmas part 3

This is part 3 of 3 for a free preschool lesson unit on the five senses of of Christmas.

Part 1 can be found here and here is a link to Part 2.

So far we learned about sight, taste, and hear. Part 3 is about touch and smell.

I CAN TOUCH PRESENTS AND BOWS

 I begin with reading One Snowy Night by M. Christina Butler

This story is about a cute little hedgehog who wake up on a snowy Christmas to find a present front Father Christmas. But Hedgehog prickles get in the way and it won't fit. Then he had a wonderful idea and it return got the greatest present of all. This book is also a touch and feel book so it fits perfectly with out lesson unit.

Other books

Snow Bunny's Christmas Wish by Rebecca Harry

 Ten little Christmas presents by Jean Marzollo

Pip and Squeak by Ian Schoenherr

Activities

P is for Presents
Cover the letter P with Christmas bows

DOWNLOAD the letter P template HERE

Bow color sort 

Bow parachute

From Teach preschool. 

Writing letters to Santa

From A Very Curious Class

Present Etiquette

Free PRINTABLE HERE

I CAN SMELL GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Gingerbread Man Poem
and Gingerbread Man story props from Kiz Club


Activities

Gingerbread Cookie Bakery Chant

This cute chant was adapted from Little Hands, Big Work

There are a 11 colors in this PRINTABLE. 

Have your kids sit in a circle with the gingerbread cookies in the middle. Choose one child to go first and repeat the bakery chant, help identify the color if needed and repeat as many times as you would like, giving each child a turn,

Simple paper gingerbread houses

DOWNLOAD this  gingerbread house TEMPLATE

Have several different paper stripes for the the kids to choose from for the trim and then I used a once inch circle paper punch for the circles. 

Glue the shapes on the gingerbread man

From Mom Have Questions Too

Make gingerbread cookies

From Babes in Disneyland

That completes the five senses of Christmas preschool unit. 

Have a Merry Christmas!

Free preschool lesson unit: Five senses of Christmas part 2

This is part 2 of 3 for a free preschool lesson unit on the fives senses of Christmas. 

Part 1 can be found here. Here is the link to Part 3

I CAN TASTE CANDY CANES

To begin our day for I can taste candy canes,  we read the book Katie the Candy Cane Fairy by Make Believe Ideas.

This is story is about Katie a fairy who performs a Christmas show with her fairy sisters each year. They depend on candy canes to make their show magical but then one day their candy canes disappear. They decide to go on a search to find new ones and figure out a way if they can still perform a magical show without depending on their candy canes.

Activities that go with the book

Disappearing candy candy stripes science experiment from Play dough to Plato

Go on a Candy cane hunt and then danced and sing with your candy canes to any Christmas song. 

Other activities

Paper clip candy canes

There are 4 sets with 12 total patterns. 

You can DOWNLOAD the candy cane patterns HERE.

Edible Peppermint ornaments from Hello Homebody

Candy cane play dough from Growing a Jeweled Rose

I CAN HEAR CHRISTMAS BELLS

We begin with reading  the book Christmas Parade by Sandra Boynton 

This book is about the pigs, chickens, cows, rhinos, and other animals who come to celebrate Christmas in a loudly way. 

Activities
Jingle bell toss: Grab your jingle bells, stand behind a line, and starting tossing the bells into a bucket, bowl, or whatever container you would like.

Counting Jingle bells 1-12

Click HERE to download this free bell printable with numbers 1-12.

Jingle Jingle Little Bell Lyrics and Action
Free printable can be DOWNLOAD HERE

Christmas bell countdown

Christmas bell template with poem can be DOWNLOADED HERE

Musical bell or pip chime music

My son was having a hard time with remembering numbers so I added a piece of paper with a color to the each chime. It is much easier for him to play.

I then took two Christmas songs and created pipe chime music sheet with colors rather than numbers. The two songs I choose were Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer and Away in a Manger.  Musical Pipes is a website I like to use get free pipe chime music.


This pipe chime music is 3 pages.

This pipe chime music is 1 page.

FREE DOWNLOAD
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer pipe chime music
Away in a Manger pipe chime music

The next post will be part 3 and the last of this lesson unit. It will be I CAN TOUCH PRESENTS AND BOWS AND I CAN SMELL GINGERBREAD COOKIES.

Free preschool lesson unit: Five senses of Christmas part 1

Preschool time is so much fun around Christmas because there are so many different ideas and activities to do. My son is part of a co-op preschool group and it is finally my turn to teach. Seriously I am really excited!

Last year I created the fives senses of Christmas lesson unit for my son and I loved it so much, we are doing it again this year with our co-op preschool and it even better this year than last. Over the next couple weeks, I will be sharing lesson ideas and activities for each sense. There will be 3 parts to this lesson unit!

*UPDATE: Here is the links to Part 2 and Part 3 of the five senses of Christmas

To start this unit, I like to read Mouse's First Christmas by Lauren Thompson

This cute story is about a little mouse who discovers new sights, smells, and taste but quite doesn't understand what it all is until he meets a jolly man with a special Christmas message. It is a good introduction for the five senses. 

After we read this story, I introduced our Christmas mouse

and I did a quick introduction about the five senses.

FREE download of the Christmas mouse HERE

Over the next several weeks, we took different days to talk about each sense and had so much fun with different games, learning activities, and books. 

I also made this cute booklet with our Christmas mouse and pictures that can be colored that went with each sense. 

THE FIVES SENSES OF CHRISTMAS ARE:

I CAN SEE CHRISTMAS COLORS

I CAN TASTE CANDY CANES

I CAN HEAR CHRISTMAS BELLS

I CAN TOUCH PRESENTS AND BOWS

I CAN SMELL GINGERBREAD COOKIES

 There is the option for a boy and girl gingerbread cookie coloring page. 

FREE fives senses Christmas coloring book can be DOWNLOADED HERE.

The first sense we began with was 

I CAN SEE CHRISTMAS COLORS.

Activities

L is for Christmas lights

You can DOWNLOAD the L template with the string lights HERE
and then have your child use their fingerprints to make the lights.

My name on Christmas lights

For this activity, I downloaded this free font from www.ffont.net
and then cut each light out. Using this string light TEMPLATE,
I had my child glue their name onto the paper.

Christmas light patterns

There are 4 sets of Christmas light patterns that can be DOWNLOADED HERE.

Christmas lights skittle sort

You can DOWNLOAD the Christmas light skittle mat HERE.

The next post I will be sharing is part 2 of 3 of the five senses of Christmas. They will be I CAN TASTE CANDY CANES AND I CAN HEAR CHRISTMAS BELLS. 

Christmas Banner

 

I seen various crafts made using paint samples and loved the idea. You get to choose the colors you want and you don't have to paint. I don't have a lot of Christmas decorations so I knew a Christmas banner using paint samples would be perfect.

I found some great Christmas templates from Activity Village and traced them onto the paint sample, then cut them out. I then used my eyelet setter to create two holes on each pattern. Next I got string and a needle and threaded the string through all the holes. And the project is complete. This idea could be easily made for other holidays and I definitely plan to make more.

25 Days of Christmas symbol printable

I normally do not even think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving but this year I seem to have a little bit more Christmas spirit. My oldest is now four and is really getting to understand Santa, reindeer, and elves. I love to see his excitement and answer all the questions he has. I do want to make Christmas fun for him but I also feel he is at the age to be able to understand why we celebrate Christmas. I thought about this for a few days and wondered how I wanted to teach him the meaning of Christmas but still make it fun and here is what I came up with.

We introduced Christopher our elf to our son last year but he really didn't get into it but I know this year is going to be fun and that is why I decided Christopher our elf it going to teach him the meaning of Christmas. 

Starting on December 1st, Christopher will be in our house and every morning until December 25, he will have a surprise for our son. Theses small surprises will represent the symbols of Christmas and are meant to help him remember Jesus Christ and the reason why we celebrate Christmas.

*UPDATE: 11/02/2018
After 6 years, this is still one of my kids favorite activity during Christmas time. Thank you for making it one of your favorites too! This printable has been updated with new graphics and larger cards. It is now available for purchase at Little Wiggles design

25 Christmas symbols

Below I created a symbol of Christmas card for each day 

   

To go a step further, Santa is going to write a letter to our son to get him excited for the Christmas Season. Santa will also remind him to not forget about Jesus. Santa will also let our son know that he and Christopher the elf planned something very special for him and Christopher will have a surprise for him each morning. 

And finally here some simple Santa letter templates I created

 

Click here to download

Click here to download

I hope you will find this post useful and that it can be a reminder to all of us to not forget about the birth of Jesus Christ, for He is the reason why we celebrate Christmas.

Christmas Advent Calendar

I purchased a  Kaisercraft Advent Calendar kit about four years ago and every year at Christmas time, it would still be in its original package. I was tired of looking at it in its package and I decided to start the project in the early fall to make sure I got it done in time for this year's Christmas season. I am so happy with the way it turned out. I decided to put on a magnetic frame so each year on Christmas morning we can take a picture of our family. Then every Christmas season, we will have last years  family picture. I thought it would be a fun way to see how much our kids have changed in the year and just think in 25 years from now, we will have a good laugh the way we looked back then.

To see other advent calendars made by others click here. Then click on search and type on advent calendar. There are some really amazing calendar creations.