Advent Calendar Activities Days 7-13

Here come the activities of the second week of our Advent:

Christmas wreath from pasta - fail :( (Day 7)

1. 
   
   
   
   
   What you need:
   * pasta (farfalle)
   * green paint
   * paintbrush
   * glue
   * cardboard ring (cut out of a cereal box)
   * red ribbon/bow
   * glitter sprinkle (I left it out this time as E. loves to spread it all over the flat)
   
   How to make it:
   Cut out the cardboard ring beforehand for your child. Let the kid paint the pasta green and let them dry. Glue them on the cardboard ring in a circle. Tie a bow (I tied it) and glue it on. You can hang it on a door with some more ribbon.
   
   In our case E. wasn't in the mood to finish the wreath after having finished with the painting. She started to paint her apron and hair, then it was time to stop.
   
   

   

   here still happily painting the pasta

   
   
   We'll get back to this project later on as the outcome is so sweet.
   
   Though we used a lot of English phrases:
   -This kind of pasta is called farfalle.
   - I have paint all over my hand.
   - Can I get some more paint?
   - I don't want to do it any more.
   
   ---o---o---o---o--- UPDATE---o---o---o---o--- coming soon---o---o---o---o---
   
   It should have turned out something like this... but better later than never...
   
2. Christmas dominoes + Santa patterning and reindeer puzzles with numbers (Day 8)

The domino was a great hit. We needed to play it 3 times and the next day when E. was with her Grandma, she showed the game to her and played it in Hungarian several times as well.

Source: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/christmas-dominoes

If she hadn't been interested in the dominoes, I had a plan B this time. Finally, we did the plan B tasks as well since there was a lot of time before dinner.

Source: http://gyereketeto.hu/kiemelt/mikulas-minibook (Santa and reindeer puzzles)

Christmas tree puzzle (Day 9)As E. spent the afternoon with her Grandma, I didn't want to put great pressure on either of them so I'd just prepared all the previous tasks and this extra one. E. showed them all to her Grandma and played with them all afternoon... this time in Hungarian.

No photos have been taken but here is the source where you can find the Christmas tree puzzle (Part 1)

Sticker Christmas tree (Day 10)

I printed out a Christmas tree template from the internet and made some dark green and light green cardboard Christmas trees. St. Nicolas has brought E. loads of Chritsmassy and winter stickers (with owls, snowmen, snowflakes, Christmas trees, presents etc.) so I wanted her to use them in this activity.

She needed to decorate the Christmas trees but there was a tiny bit of educational twist. I wrote letters on the trees and she had to cover each with a sticker. She needed to use a sticker which started with the same letter (C - candy cane or Christmas tree, B - bell, S - star, snowflake, snowman, G - gingerbread man, A - angel, P - present etc.) The dark tree had letters corresponding Hungarian words and the light green trees the English ones. (We did this task in two or three rounds)

She enjoyed it soooo much, she was busy with it for 40-45 minutes each time. (Sometimes she asked for a letter so she could cover it with something special (H for holly, for instance).

As I made the same number of trees as we are in the family, Daddy and I helped out a bit. (Not as if she'd needed any, just for fun. It could be a great family activity.)

When she'd finished with all the trees, I stuck them up on a ribbon in a line and displayed it on her door frame. She likes it a lot. Mostly the little green bell at the bottom (you can't see it in the photo.)

Make a Christmas card for a friend (Straw Christmas tree) (Day 11)

Again I prepared everything for her beforehand. A A5 size construction paper (yellow) folded in half. Inside I wrote MERRY CHRISTMAS! (in capitals) and signed some spots with crosses where she could stick her stickers (we are in a sticker craze phase). I'd also cut up some straws (red and green) with different length so she can build a Christmas tree in the front (of course I provided her with some glue too.)

First, she stuck in the Christmas stickers.

Second, she traced the letters in Merry Christmas and signed the card.

Lastly, she built the Christmas tree on the front (She wanted to put a star on the top - "Can I get a star? I want to put it on top" so I gave her a golden felt one - this is what I could find.) She needed help with the straws as they were too thin for her little hands. But the final result was really nice. (Here is a very bad quality shot of the card. I had very little time to take photos as B. came earlier and we really needed to focus on finishing the card. But you can get the idea.)

Christmas ornaments: baubles filled with pompoms  (Day 12)

(present for the nursery teachers)

From last year I had two plastic baubles which can be taken apart. I gave E. some pompoms (red, yellow and green - some of them sparkly) and jingle bells (gold and silver). She needed to decide what colour combination she wished to fill the baubles with. It was also her choice which bauble would go to which nursery teacher. (The light/dark green is for R. and the red and yellow is for M.)

It's a real easy craft (the only thing I did at the end was fixing the bottom of the baubles with transparent cello-tape and tied a ribbon on it.) Even a 2 year old can do it. What's more, you can fill the bauble up with anything: beads, ribbons, nuts, fake snow, coloured rice, tiny Kinder egg objects, torn crepe paper etc. - you name it)

Christmassy pre-writing practice (Day 13)

As I have already mentioned I found a great Christmas pack for preschoolers (it has a version for toddlers too - see the source information bellow), which offers a great number of activities: puzzles, pre-writing activities, find the difference, memory games - just to name a few). So I printed some of the pages and used them separately, like these two types:
*Which one is different?
*Pre-writing sheets in Christmas style.

Source: http://www.3dinosaurs.com/printables/packs/christmas.php (part 1)

And also this Santa and stocking matching activity from gyereketeto.hu

Source: http://gyereketeto.hu/kiemelt/mikulas-minibook

I'll be back with some more activities hidden in our advent calendar.
Here's a teaser:

Advent Calendar Activities Days 1-6

This year we have two ways to prepare ourselves and wait for Christmas. I have already written a post about a Book Advent Calendar, and now I'll share with you the activities we'll be doing in the next couple of weeks week by week. Here are the first 6 days:

This Tchibo Advent Calendar that I managed to get a few years ago hides small presents and an activity card every day. Most of the time the cards are written in English so we can spend a little time doing something in the second language on a daily basis apart from the books we read.

Sometimes we have simple instructions in the calendar, like "Clean your boots and put them out in the window for St. Nicolas". Or we decorate our home together and the ornaments are in the calendar. (They often cannot fit in the pocket so I put them near the calendar and E. can find them easily) In these case, there are no crafts.

Here is the list of activities for Days 1-6:

1. Cardboard candy cane (Day 1)
   
   
   

   

   painting

   

   sticking the cotton wool

   
   
   

   

   on our door

   
   
   What I prepared beforehand:
   
   - 3 cardboard cut-outs
   - red paint
   - paintbrushes
   - glue
   - little cotton wool balls
   
   We painted the candy cane cardboards red and let them dry (on the radiator).
   
   We glued lines on the candy cane and stuck on the cotton wool to make it stripy. When we finished we displayed them on our door.
   
   
   
   Source: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/12/how-sweet-it-is.html
2. Decorating E.'s window with flashing snowflake ornaments (Day 2)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   On one of our Christmas shopping we bought 2 snowflakes that have little batteries and if you turn them on they have flashing led lights (I didn't realise the colours are red and blue - so they are a bit strange, but E. loved them at first sight anyway). You can attach them to the window with suction-cups.
   
   Every evening E. asks us to turn them on.
3. Write a letter to Santa + Santa counting cards with festive peg + hair bobbles and clip present (Day 3)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   First, she didn't want to write a letter to Santa (St. Nicolas) so played with the cards. She loved the tiny pegs with Santa, mittens and boots on them. She counted and clipped and counted and clipped. I made the printable myself, and you can download it at the end of the post.
   
   
   
4. Gingerbread dough making (with a recipe) (Day 4)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Last year I found a really good gingerbread recipe on bebeangol.hu. It's easy to make, smells wonderful, and stays soft.
   
   So on the 4 December (before the next day's gingerbread party) we prepared the dough with E. So many people were coming we needed to make two batches. E.'s enthusiasm lasted only for one.
   
   It was rather messy with lots of ingredients and measuring I couldn't take photos.
   
   Here is the recipe in English:
   Ingredients:
   For the dough:
   - 500 g white flour
   - 2 teaspoons of baking soda
   - grated zest of an orange (the colourful part of the peel)
   - grated zest of a lemon
   - 1 egg + 2 egg yolks
   - 2 tablespoons of freshly pressed orange
   - 130 g honey
   - 100 g butter
   - 150 g sugar (powder)
   - 1 tablespoon of gingerbread spice
   
   For the decoration (optional):
   - 1 or 2 egg's white
   - about 150 g sugar powder
   
   Preparation:
   
   Put the honey, butter and sugar into a pot and heat it up until they melt. Let them cool (on the balcony or in the window sill, while you are making the rest of the dough)
   
   Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, baking soda, gingerbread spice, grated lemon and orange zest, then add the whole egg and the two egg yolks. (Put the whites in the fridge, you can use it for the decoration). Mix in 2 tablespoonfuls of freshly pressed orange and finally the cool mixture of honey+butter+sugar. Mix them all together with a hand mixer (dough hooks on). In the very end I knead it a little to make it stick together.
   
   Wrap the dough in cling film and place it in the fridge for 6-8 hours. (The best is if you can prepare it the day before baking and the dough can rest the whole night in the fridge. If you're pushed for time, it is OK if it rests in the fridge only for a few hours. (I've tried it and it worked the same)
   
   When you're ready to bake, take the dough out and knead it a bit on a board covered with a thin layer of flour (also add flour to your rolling pin).
   
   Then roll the dough 3-4 mm thin and use your cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. Put them on baking paper on a tray and bake them for 8-10 minutes in the oven that you've preheated at 180 Celsius degrees.
   
   Let it cool down and decorate it with the whisked mixture of sugar powder and egg whites (whisk them until they are hard and fill them in a plastic bag. Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and push the white stuff out on your gingerbread) or with other decorations (nuts, almonds, sugar sprinkles, hearts or beads etc.) We always use the Dr. Oetker edible decorations.
5. Clean your boots and put them out in the window for St. Nicolas (Day 5)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   As in Hungary St. Nicolas (Santa) brings presents on the night of 5 December, children need to clean their boots and put them out in the window so St. Nicolas can fill them up with goodies and presents.
   
   
   And then in the morning (6 Dec):
   
   
   
   
   
   
6.  Santa craft from paper plate (Day 6)
   
   
   
   
   
   On the 6 December E.'s Godparents and God-sisters came to visit. So we did this advent activity together. They were more than happy to take part.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   (By the way, I saw this Santa paper plate craft activity on Pinterest but after some rethinking I changed it a bit.)
   
   You need:
   * paper plate
   * red construction paper/foam sheet
   * googly eyes
   * red pompom
   * white cosmetic cotton wool balls
   * scissors
   * glue
   
   What you need to do:
   
   I prepared the hats out of the red cardboard in advance and drew a line on the top of the paper plate where the kids could cut along.
   
   First, stick on the hat, then add the googly eyes, the pompom nose. You can use any kind of glue you have at home. For smaller kids (about age 2 or younger) you can pre-draw the places of the eyes and nose and mouth).
   
   Next, with a crayon or marker you can draw the mouth.
   
   To finish with, you can add the cotton balls on the tip of the hat and along the head line. If you have a lot of cotton balls the sticking can go on the beard too.
   
   There was an extra special activity with Daddy at bath time: tea lights were lit and placed around the bathroom and the tub and they were blowing bubbles while bathing. It was so much fun... unfortunately I couldn't take photos in the dark and I preferred to watch how they enjoyed the bath :)

More activities are to come!

Santa visited the Helen Doron School

In Hungary we have a special day called St. Nicholas Day on the 6th December. St. Nicholas (=Mikulás) is depicted like Santa Claus and more or less they are very similar legendary characters.

As Mikulás is a big day for Hungarian kids, our local Helen Doron school also organised an event: meeting Santa on Saturday (6 Dec). Alas, I left the camera and my phone at home as we were in a hurry to leave for the school, so all the photos were taken with the HD school's camera.

10-12 kids signed up every half an hour on the big day. (FYI: Financial contribution of the event was 500HUF/family). When we arrived the previous group was in with Santa so we had time for some snacks, cocoa and some crafts. It was very simple but a lot of fun activity with a cardboard ring, some black circles, white hearts and some orange scraps. Our teacher, Zs. was preparing the materials and helping the kids with the crafts. And what did we make out of them? This door wreath of penguins:

Then our time came to go in Santa's room, where Santa was sitting on the sofa with a thick book. In the corner there were some props for a Christmas story. The starry sky, a stable with a new-born baby in the manger.

Santa read out the story of a tiny, sad star, called Starlet, who grew big and hot when she needed to give light and warmth to Baby Jesus. The story was read in English, one of the HD teachers' (Z.) partner played the role of Santa. Although his English wasn't perfect, but good enough for the occasion.

After the heart-warming story, the kids needed to sing (together) a Christmassy song for Santa (luckily with the help of the HD teacher - Z.). We sang "We wish you a merry Christmas". E. was really quiet, so I whispered into her ear that she needs to sing louder, as Santa can't hear it. Then she started to sing REALLY loudly. She took it seriously and she was so cute.

Next, Santa pulled out tiny presents for the children (szaloncukor - the Hungarian traditional Christmas candy and a tangerine) from his bag. We could take some photos with Santa and also the director lady (O.) took some (Thank Goodness!) so this is the only reason why I can include some in this post.

After meeting Santa, we went back to the crafts room to Zs., where we could eat some more or do some more crafts. A Christmas card this time. The reindeer inside are E.'s finger prints.

After having finished two Christmas cards, we thanked O. and Zs. for the nice and well-organised Mikulás party and left for home to tell Daddy all the exciting details about meeting Santa.

Merry Christmas

I've been really busy lately: we've had some illneses and I started to learn Spanish, which kept me away from the blog. But next year I'll catch up. Promise... to myself mainly.

Of course, the last few months have been full of preparation for celebrations (Thanksgiving, Advent, birthdays, St Nicolas day - the Hungarian speciality - and Christmas). We had a lot of English usage in connection with these and in our everyday life too.

Santa arrived on 6th December

Shapes are in - a post will be coming soon on the topic.

Food shapes

We still take part in Helen Doron English sessions - some negative, some positve expereinces. Might share with you later, too.

E. is getting more and more interested in numbers (big numbers in the first place) and letters as well. I'll also write about how far we've got and what we are doing with letters and numbers.

Advent calendar and its numbers

We've put a hold on flashcards as E. doesn't seem to be excited about them any more (sometimes we do a little revision), and as she speaks continuously and more or less fluently (3-6 word sentences) with a wide range of vocabulary, flashcards are pointless in introducing something new to her. (I have some ideas of car logos, starsigns and Christmas vocab, but she knows a lot about these things already)

Baking gingerbread was one of the highlights of this season - the time when she learnt how to pose and say 'cheese' when someone takes a photo of her.

Is it going to be a Gingerbread man?

Thank you for following us, and giving your feedback.

I wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas and a successful New Year with a lot of second (or third) language.