Christmas Day Two - The Night Before Christmas

Reading
Preparation
Get book The Night Before Christmas
Materials
Book
Teaching
1.Read book to child.
2.Read book again, only this time, have your child act out the poem as you read it.

Phonics
Preparation

Write the poem, The Night Before Christmas." If you don't want to write it out, email me amyiswrite@gmail.com and I will send you a word doc of the one I wrote out, so you can skip this long step in prep
write the rhyming words on pieces of paper, and cut them into individual words

Poem
Marker
Paper divided into two sections, "twins" and "jail"
rhyming words
glue stick
Teaching
1. Read poem to your child and circle the rhyming words in the poem (you can circle, or your child can circle, your choice).
2. You don't need to do the entire poem, gauge your child's interest.  My son lasted about 1/2 way before he was done circling.  That's fine.  Stop before it becomes a chore.
3. Show the rhyming words to your child.  Line them up, one above the other so that the rimes align.
4. Ask, "Are these rhymes spelled the same, or are they different?"
5. If they are the same, your child glues them under "twins."  If they are different your child glues them in "jail."

Writing
Preparation
Using large dotted line paper, write a capital "N" on the first line and a lower case "n" on the second line.  On other lines write the following rimes: ab, ag, ap, est, et, ib, ip, od, ot, ub, un, ut
Materials
paper
pen
markers, etc
Teaching
1. Teach your child proper formation of the letter "N" both upper-and lower case.
2. Have your child add the letter 'N" to each rime to create a new word, word the word with your child.
3. On a separate piece of paper write, "If I met Santa I would"
4.  Have your child tell you what they would do if they met Santa.  finish the sentence, writing what your child told you.
5.  Have your child illustrate the sentence.


Math
Preparation
Draw a stocking on a piece of paper with sharp corners.  Placing another piece of paper behind your paper with the stocking.  Cut out stocking, so you have two exact copies. Cut the second stocking into about 5-7 shapes of triangles, rectangles, and squares.
Materials
Stocking
Pieces
glue stick.
Teaching
1. Tell your child that this is an empty stocking that Santa needs to fill.
2.Show the shapes to your child, have your child name the shapes.
3.Tell your child the shapes are presents for the stocking, and they need to help Santa fit all the presents into the stocking.
4. Have child rearrange shapes in stocking until they all fit, then have child glue pieces into the stocking.


Exploration
Preparation
For Christmas, all our Explorations are about doing kids things for other people.  Find a way to give gifts of kindness and services with your child.  Our church was buying presents for a homeless shelter so we signed up and I let my son help pick out a gift for the shelter.

Art
Preparation
Draw a picture, or print out a simple picture of Santa.
Materials
Santa picture
Crayons or markers
Cotton balls
Glue
Teaching
1. Have child color Santa's face and hat
2.Have child glue cotton balls on to beard and hat rim.