James has been talking about Christmas trees ever since we put ours up last week and so I thought it'd be fun to make this month's tub and playdough a "Christmas Tree" theme.
Here's what's inside:
:: Green rice (colored with food coloring to simulate pine needles)
:: Yellow star pasta (borrowed from our yellow sensory tub)
:: Plastic lights
:: Wooden stars
:: Small ornaments
:: Red and blue beads
:: Green sparkly puffs
:: Small wooden discs (to represent the tree trunk :D)
:: A wrapped gift with a bell inside
:: Plastic birds
:: Wooden scoop
:: Blue glass cup
:: Tree shaped box
:: Two tiny gold bells
I put jingle bells in last year's Christmas tub, but I decided against it this time around as I found the rice collected inside of the bells making them nearly soundless.
James and I had a blast decorating this playdough tree while listening to some Christmas music...
James shouted, "Oh, Boy!" (his new go-to phrase) when we finished making it. :) I added some peppermint extract and glitter to the dough for even more sensory fun. For the decorations, I gathered a collection of beads, buttons, sequins, gems, little birds and bits of chenille sticks and put them in a bowl. I put out a selection of Christmas themed cookie cutters, too.
Here's what's inside::: Green rice (colored with food coloring to simulate pine needles)
:: Yellow star pasta (borrowed from our yellow sensory tub)
:: Plastic lights
:: Wooden stars
:: Small ornaments
:: Red and blue beads
:: Green sparkly puffs
:: Small wooden discs (to represent the tree trunk :D)
:: A wrapped gift with a bell inside
:: Plastic birds
:: Wooden scoop
:: Blue glass cup
:: Tree shaped box
:: Two tiny gold bells
I put jingle bells in last year's Christmas tub, but I decided against it this time around as I found the rice collected inside of the bells making them nearly soundless.
James and I had a blast decorating this playdough tree while listening to some Christmas music...
James shouted, "Oh, Boy!" (his new go-to phrase) when we finished making it. :) I added some peppermint extract and glitter to the dough for even more sensory fun. For the decorations, I gathered a collection of beads, buttons, sequins, gems, little birds and bits of chenille sticks and put them in a bowl. I put out a selection of Christmas themed cookie cutters, too.~Thank you for your comments!~
26 comments:
Oh, I love the rice...what a creative idea to make them look like pine needles!
oo love it!! I love the little lights. The sensory box is on my agenda for today.. I have supplies just need to dump last months into a bag and put together the new one! I think I am going to make that playdough too Sammy is Christmas tree obsessed as well too :-)
Lovely ideas..thanks for sharing!Have a magic day.
Patty
LOVE the idea of 'decorating' your playdough tree! You always have the coolest sensory tubs!
Love the tree. We did this too, except we cut them out with cookie cutters. I like this variation.
What fun! Your sensory tub and playdough tree are so appealing - how can even an adult pass by without ever having a bit of sensory fun?! I just featured this on the Living Montessori Now Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow
I always love your sensory tubs, and this one is fantastic! But the playdough tree idea is one I'm definitely going to do, so thanks for sharing it. Gabriela also loves Christmas trees (and playdough), so I'm pretty confident this is the perfect activity for her!
I like this sensory tub too and I love what you did with the play-dough tree! It's really neat.
Love the playdough tree!! Will definitely need to give it a try! Kerri
I love the Christmas tree! I will have to try that with my little miss. She would love being able to decorate her own tree.
I love the decorated Chrismtas tree. The sensory bin looks great too.
Oh! I suscribed to your blog about two weeks ago and I can´t stop admiring all great ideas and resources you share. Both sensory tubs and the continents bags are simple wonderful, inspiring, great. The kind of thing I´m seriously going to start doing to give my educational practice a new flight. Thank you so much for all what you share and congratulations for the best crafts blog homeschool award!!
Love, Fernanda
I am so glad to have found your blog. My girls go to Montessori School and I am always looking for ways to bring it home. I was going to make some playdough tomorrow--the stick ins are a smart idea!!
Oh I just love the dough Christmas Tree! What a super idea!
The playdough tree is a wonderful idea! Just stumbled across your blog after googling "Christmas Sensory Tub"! So glad it brought me here, you have great ideas!
Beautiful! The sensory tub is so bright and merry!! The little tree is way cute!
Hi Mari-Ann!
I have just linked back to you in my latest post. I also did a Christmas Sensory Tub. Thanks for all the wonderful sensory tub inspiration!!
Take care,
Georgia
There are so many great sensory tub and playdough ideas for Christmas, but I think yours may be some of my favorites! That playdough is SO fun, and I love all the little ornaments for the tree.
what a super, creative, & wonderful idea about making the dough into a decorasted christmas tree!!!. I made one of Naters Playdohs this month Grinch green (she loves the grinch). Hope you don't mind, but i'm going to have Naters do this with some small scrapbooking embellishments that i have! I make her playdoh and sensory tubs up a month early and then put them away until the first of the month. I'm always excited to give her the new ones! Love your ideas!!!! Thanks!
becky
http://nurturingnaters.blogspot.com/
Hi Mari-Ann!
Thanks once again for the awesome ideas for themed sensory activities, including both the sensory Christmas bin and the playdough. I linked to you in my post for today:
http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-our-shelves-december-activities.html
You are my inspiration for making our sensory table, which I showed in one of the photos. The boys are enjoying this work, although they are hoping this cold snap wraps up here in Florida, as it makes for a cold time to be playing out on our lanai.
We have yet to make playdough, but plan to try your recipe this month. Little Bro loves playing with playdough and will just love making a playdough Christmas tree.
Well, have a happy week.
Colleen :)
Hi! I am a big fan of your blog and visit all the time to see what great new ideas you have on here. I have a couple of questions about your sensory tub for this month. First, how did you go about coloring the rice with the food coloring? Second, do you explain what everything is to your little guy or just let him figure it out on his own? For example, do you explain to him that the wooden disk represent tree trunks or just let him play without any explanation. Thanks for posting all of your wonderful ideas!
Thanks for your posts with all the sensory bin ideas. I just started doing them with my daughter. We need more fun inside things to do this winter. I did a bithday bin (her birthday is on Sunday) for my daughter and a construction bin for my son. I used almost all re-use or recycled materials.
http://sustainable-family.blogspot.com/2010/12/sensory-bins-recycled-kids-activity.html
Hi Mari-Ann! Just wanted to let you know we made a play dough tree today and it was so much fun! I linked to you:
http://littlelearnerslounge.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-play-dough.html
You have so many great ideas! I love how you do themed playdough. I made some Christmas themed playdough today, too -- gingerbread and glittery snow. I put some pictures on my blog, http://mama-hen-jenn.blogspot.com/. Thanks for all the inspiration!
We made gingerbread Playdough today and it smelled divine. Now I want to try peppermint.
Gingerbread Playdough Recipe
http://inspirationthief.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-book-advent-calendar-day-8.html
I had fun revisiting your post, Mari-Ann. I featured your post and photo in my Montessori-inspired Christmas Playdough Activities at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2012/11/26/montessori-monday-montessori-inspired-christmas-playdough-activities/
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