Michelle's Maple Tree: Giving Tree

I am finally catching my breath and feeling that shift to a slower pace. I so look forward to shifting gears this time of the year. I took a few days to decompress and cook and deck out parts of my house. It's been a really nice change.
Last Saturday in that crazy snow storm we loaded up the Van with the donations for the SPCA and our family that we sponsored and I delivered those gifts. It was the last of the things I needed to do before starting my break. Even in a storm I was happy to do it. It felt extra Christmasy driving around in that snow.

We first dropped off all the gifts to our family. It was anonymous so it was a relief to find them not home. Our intention was to surprise them and I didn't want this to be awkward for them. We left huge boxes of gifts for them and their children on their front porch and over $850.00 dollars in gift cards in their mailbox. I personally know these gifts were received as my source said the Dad was wiping away tears as he talked of the kindness they found in their mailbox and on their front porch! Wow, that felt amazing! Amazing to be apart of such ca fantastic community of parents and children at Maple Tree. I asked and everyone gave and gave from the heart. Please know it made such a difference for this family.

SPCA Donation

Lastly, I drove to the SPCA. This was our first year for giving there and it was such a good call. Just days prior we had heard on the news that they were overwhelmed with animals being dropped off in dire conditions and they were struggling to keep up with the needs and demands. You can see by the photo that we delivered a lot of good! The staff at the shelter were so overwhelmed by this large donation. Please keep the SPCA in your thoughts through out the year. they always have need. You can foster such kindness and empathy in your children by even just taking the time to visit and love up and pet the kittens, cats and bunnies at the shelter. Everything helps. Thank you to all our wonderful families!

This past month, the children have been making non stop. It's a good time to shift gears a little bit in the classroom as the children are a bit restless and excited about the coming holiday. We like to highlight our giving project by making lots of ornaments with our children for the tree that then go home to their christmas tree. We had some really great projects this year!

Snowman Ornament

We used a combination of clay and salt dough for these ornaments. Clay at Oxford Street and Salt dough at Quinpool. These were the sweetest ornaments and I would go so far as to say my favourite this year. The sensory experience lent itself to quiet focused pockets of concentration with the children from pressing out the clay/dough to painting. We will do these again.

String Star Ornament

We also made some string stars. I cut out alot of white stars from foam board. It was worth it. This project exceeded my expectations and the children loved the color. Such a simple project of just wrapping and winding yarn around stars.

Pinecone Weaving

We also pulled out an oldy but goodie project from our archives. Pinecone weaving is a standard piece of work on our art shelf this time of the year.

We also had crayon sharpening out for weeks on our practical life shelf in hopes of collecting enough crayon bits for out melted glass ball project. There was endless amounts of sharpening going on and the children were very curious about what we would used all the shaving for!

The children scooped crayon shavings into the glass balls and then a teacher held them while the child used the hairdryer to heat up the crayon. They were beautiful! There was also lots of talk about how the heat was melting the crayon and it was moving and sticking to the glass ball.

Crayon Glass Ball Ornament

Wooden Santa

We also, made these super cute Santa ornaments. We had a parent cut the wooden disks for us and they we had the children help with drilling out the holes. So much fun. The children painted on the faces. This was an easy project and quick. Everyone was able to make one.

Popcorn and Cranberries

There was lots of cranberry stringing going on and Crayon rubbing work and Water colour Painting as well. We did our best to tuck as much into the time we had as we could with the children.