Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: Littles Learning Link Up: November 29, 2016

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Littles Learning Link Up: November 29, 2016 - Gingerbread House Craft

Each month you will find:

A seasonal round-up (toward the beginning of the month)
A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

We magically made it home from Mexico for the Thanksgiving holiday (yes, I forgot to have us fly home, and the children reminded me of that yesterday). We took a week off of school, preparing for Thanksgiving. We made a Turkey pinata to combine our study on Mexico and Thanksgiving. I hope to share our Mexico lessons soon, and that will include the turkey pinata. We are now off to Canada for the next two weeks.

Today I would like to share a craft we did several weeks ago when we were doing our Christmas Comes to America unit study. When we learned about traditions in Germany, we learned about the origin of the Gingerbread House. Because our study took place in October, there were no Gingerbread House kits in the stores yet, so I decided we would make a paper gingerbread house that we would hang up once December arrived.

Gingerbread House Craft

You will need:

Brown construction paper

Large piece of white construction paper, or two papers taped together

White construction paper for: triangle snow, circles, candy canes

Green construction paper for 3 sizes of triangles

Various colors of construction paper for gum drops

Glue

Glue stick

Pencil

Scissors

Red and White crayons

I used a ruler to draw a house shape onto the brown construction paper. The sides of the house are 1 inch from the edge.

The children started by cutting out their houses.

Then they glued the houses on to the white paper:

The white triangles were made by tracing the roof. This was used to make snow for the roof. I had the children use a pencil to make the snow in the shape they wanted it.

They used the different items to decorate their houses. They drew red lines onto the candy canes.

And I showed them how to make peppermints.

Tabitha decided she wanted some icicles.

And Amelia and Hannah decided they wanted to add some gingerbread people. They just drew them on.

We added snow to the windowsills with the white crayon.

I love how they are all unique.

Something I would like to share with you:

Speaking of Christmas, here is my Keeping Christ in Christmas Round Up

I am still lining up guest posts. If you would be interested writing a guest post for Littles Learning Link Up one of these months, please leave a comment or contact me via my contact info on my About Me page. I will need to have your email address so I can contact you. I am looking for posts that have to do with young children: crafts, activities, foods/snacks, tips, or other ideas. I am open to suggestions.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 24 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on posts.

Please don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Cristina from Ava's Alphabet shared 7 Ways to Teach Young Children About the Joy of Giving.

And here are this week's top clicked on posts.

There are 4 of them this week!

1- Tara from Embark on the Journey shared Nativity Printable Math Pack for Preschool and Kindergarten.

2- Tara from Homeschool Preschool shared Christmas Printable Tracing Pages for Preschoolers.

3- Tara from Homeschool Preschool shared 25 of the Best Educational Board Games for Preschoolers.

4- Brittney from Mom's Heart shared Before Five in a Row: Corduroy.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.