stART ~ The Christmas Story

 

Welcome to stART!  I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART.  **This is a work in progress so if you have participated and would like to be added to the list, leave me a comment and let me know.

This week we have been talking a lot about Christmas.  Emily is very excited to be in the Christmas Pageant both at her school and at our church.  We have especially enjoyed The Christmas Story, retold by Jane Werner Watson.  This Little Golden Book has beautiful illustrations by Eloise Wilkon that help the story come to life.

I was thinking about a project to do for this book, when Emily came home with this perfect one from school.  I liked it so much that I want to do it with the children in my Sunday School class.

I ordered the Nativity Stickers from oriental trading back in October and was just going to have the kids put them on a piece of construction paper, but I loved the idea of using the plastic plate.  Emily loved it because it was something different than we would normally use she couldn’t wait to find a place to hang it when she got home from school.

There are more than 25 stickers so this could also be a fun Advent activity, where you add a different sticker to the picture each night.  Maybe next year :)

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

stART ~ A Star For Jesus

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our book and art project and maybe even share your own too! For an explanation of stART click here.

This week we read A Star for Jesus, by Crystal Bowman. This is a wonderful retelling of the Christmas Story! It also explains the significance of the Star at Christmas time.

Last year I made a Star and Paper Chain Christmas Countdown. Emily really enjoyed taking of a link each night and I think it helped her picture how long until Christmas. So this year I was very excited that she would be able to help me make it again. We were able to do our stART project with 2 of our friends too.

First I cut out a star from yellow construction paper and this little poem to glue to the star:

Each evening when goodnights are said,

Take off one link and hop into bed.

When only the star is left to shine,

then you will know it’s Christmastime!

I was very excited that Sarah was able to laminate all of the stars for us so we will be able to use it again an again!

The girls all helped make the paper chains. We attached 25 chains to the star!

The girls with their finished projects!

Handprint Paper Towel Tube Advent Wreath

Every year at the beginning of Advent we sang this Advent Candle Song with the entire Sunday School and different children would get a chance to “light” the candles. I always knew that when I had children that I would do the same thing with them in our home.

Emily and I made the advent wreath out of her handprints. The candles are paper towel tubes cut into thirds and then wrapped in colored construction paper. We use yellow tissue paper to “light” the candles.

Emily colored the green construction paper first.

She had a great time…it got all over her face!!

I traced her hands onto the green paper and then cut them all out.

Emily glued her handprints onto a paper plate that I cut the center out of.

Emil put the yellow tissue paper into the first candle as we sang the song together.

Our Advent Wreath.

I found a video of the same song that we sing so you can hear the tune! I love this song and find myself singing it all day once it gets into my head :0)