Well. I made it to Christmas break! Even I had doubts that this was going to happen! This past week I have been so exhausted that my bedtime has literally been at 8 p.m. It has also been REALLY cold around here, so that didn't help things much either!To help my students get through the week AND to make things fun, I did several crafty things with my students to help all of us get into the Christmas spirit! I thought I would share a few here, just in case you have little ones that you need to entertain until Christmas! Many of you know that my class mascot is a penguin.. so most of our crafts had a penguin theme!
We started off last Monday by making Gingerbread Penguins.. no bake of course! To make these gingerbread ornaments, you need 1/2 cup of applesauce. 1/2 cup of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of glue. Mix these ingredients well and then roll the dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick. We used a penguin cookie cutter (good heavens.. talk about hard to find!) and then we used a pencil to poke a hole in the top of each penguin's head for ribbon to hang the ornament. These ornaments do not require baking, they just need about 2-3 days to dry. They smell divine and it's a fun project for kids! The above recipe makes 6 ornaments, you can double the recipe to make more.
Another project that I added to my Christmas Palooza celebration this year was candy making. I called this "Penguin Candy Making" because I lucked out at AC Moore this year and actually found penguin chocolate molds. I think out of all of the crafts we did, my kids really enjoyed this one because we got to do a little "cooking!"
All you need to do this craft is meltable chocolates, a microwave safe bowl (I just used my glass measuring cup), molds of your choice, a spoon, a microwave and a few squeeze bottles. This helps if you are working with kids!
All you need to do is melt the chocolate for 30 seconds and stir. Keep heating for 30 seconds and stirring until all of the chips are melted. Then pour into a squeeze bottle and squeeze some chocolate into each mold! It is so easy! One bag of chocolate melt chips makes about 68 pieces of candy! I used chocolate and vanilla just for variety. The last step you want to take is to drop the molds lightly on the counter several times to get out any air bubbles and to make the molds even. Then place the molds in the fridge for 15 minutes. The take the molds out, and twist the mold slightly, and they will pop out. It is so easy and fun for kids!
And, the finished product.....
I made a few test "batches" at home. That way, my students would have some penguins left over to take home in their goodie bags at the end of the week.
So that is what I have been up too! These past two days of vacation have been filled with sleeping, laundry, hanging with Pitty Pat and finally, our family Christmas luncheon yesterday in Lake City. We always meet the Saturday before Christmas to see everyone, since we are so spread apart now! I am going to leave you with this pic of me, my Mom, Aunt Gwen and Great Aunt Alice. I inherited all of my knitting talent from my Aunt Alice.
I am off to watch some cheesy Christmas movies on TV and take it easy with Pitty Pat. See y'all tomorrow!
:) JKP
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