Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Winter Holidays, Day Two

Day two=more gingerbread people! Today you will make sandpaper gingerbread people. You will need a large sheet of sandpaper (whatever grit-it doesn’t matter. I usually buy it in multi-packs that contain several different grits) for each child. You will need to trace a pattern of a gingerbread man onto each sheet of sandpaper. I like to trace on the back of the paper to save my markers!

Give each child their gingerbread man and have them cut it out. As always, this is a great opportunity for children who have limited motor skills to operate the scissors using a switch while someone else holds the
switch-powered scissors. This is an awesome cutting activity because the sandpaper gives a little more resistance than regular paper, which helps to build hand strength. Try to think about the different ways that you can provide a little resistance in cutting!

Once all the gingerbread people have been cut out, you can do one of three things: (1) have the students decorate their gingerbread person using paint/brushes; (2) have them decorate using buttons, rick rack, pieces of cloth, etc.; (3) fill Ziploc bags with different colors of puff paint (equal parts glue and shaving cream with paint to add color) and have them “pipe” the decorations on their people-just like they would pipe icing on a cookie!

Today, have your students glue their popsicle sticks from yesterday’s fine motor activity into a Christmas tree shape-the three green form a triangle “tree” while the brown is the trunk. Add a laminated yellow paper or craft foam star. Once the glue has dried, tie a piece of red yarn to make a hanger. I always write the year on the star as well. Take a nice holiday picture of your students (I have mine pose in front of the Christmas tree) and cut it to fit your ornaments, and then glue into place
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