Tis the holiday season! And with the holidays comes sharing family traditions. Those traditions could include passing out yummy treats to neighbors; donating to the needy; making gifts*; getting together to make gingerbread houses OR wearing ugly Christmas sweaters–and having contests to see whose is truly the worst.
* Grandparents ALWAYS like homemade gifts from their grandkiddos! Check recipes here.
Let’s use the ugly Christmas sweater for some terrific hands-on activities to do during the holiday season!
Enrich the PLAY: Sorting & Classifying* using Ugly Christmas Sweaters
Materials Needed:
scissors
ugly Christmas sweater photos (see below)
clear contact paper
Optional: paper strips (sentence strips)
sharpie, various colors
yardstick
Instructions:
● Print photos
● Cover photos with clear contact paper
● Let your kiddo observe each photo as long as they’d like
● When they’re finished, ASK: Put similar sweaters together in groups
● If they’re unsure what to do comment: Put photos with the red sweaters in a pile here and ones with blue in a pile here
● For paper strips make 2, and write on one: RED and the other: BLUE
● Place the photos in the correct color column (see below)
● Highlight the point at which both the RED and BLUE columns are equal (ie at 2) and put the yardstick there (see line above). Alternately you could use your arm. Emphasis both the RED and BLUE columns have 2 sweaters each.
● Point out there’s a sweater on the other side of the yardstick. This shows how many MORE RED sweaters there are than BLUE sweaters
● ASK you kiddo to count how many more sweaters are on the other side of the yardstick (in this case there’s 1).
● Reinforce: Yes there is 1 more RED sweater than BLUE.
● Verify how many RED and BLUE sweaters there are (3 and 2)—have your kiddo count out each color individually
Connect the dots…
● You found there was 1 more RED sweater than BLUE and there are 3 RED sweaters and 2 BLUE sweaters
● So, 3 is 1 more than 2 OR 2+1=3
● Showcase this on your paper strip, writing the number sentence: 2+1=3 and on another strip a 2nd number sentence: 3=2+1
Continue other ways of classifying and counting the sweaters. In addition to color, some other attributes for the sweaters could be:
-reindeer
-trees
-snowflakes
-holly
-Santa or sleigh
* Recall sorting is separating items into groups with like attributes; categorizing is placing items into pre-set/pre-named groups
Extend the PLAY: Patterning* with Ugly XMAS Sweaters
Materials Needed:
clear contact paper
scissors
ugly Christmas sweater photos (see below)
Instructions:
● Print (5) copies of each photo
● Cover each photo with clear contact paper
● Start a basic AB pattern for your kiddo (See below)
● Begin by having your kiddo point (and touch if they’d like) red, blue, red, blue, red (ASK: What comes next?)
● If they don’t seem to understand, say the pattern yourself (intoning differently for red and blue), then at the end say: Should the red sweater be next (lay it down) OR should the blue sweater be next? (lay it down?)
● Continue to add onto the pattern!
Once your kiddo feels comfortable with the AB pattern, try a more complex pattern. Examples would include ABC; AABB, AABB; AAB; ABB; ABCD; ABCDE
(Recall, for a pattern to be a pattern it needs to repeat at least twice. So, for example, for ABC the pattern would, minimally be: ABCABC.)
● Remember to let your child say the pattern aloud when it is complete. This allows for self-correcting any misplaced objects in the pattern!
*Patterns are arrangements of things that repeat in a logical way. A pattern is only a pattern if it repeats at least twice. According to Zero to Three, “Patterns help children learn to make predictions, to understand what comes next, to make logical connections, and to use reasoning skills.”
Go ahead put on Deck the Halls and don those ugly Christmas sweaters! Check out the Celebrations & Family Traditions Go PLAY Activity Card for more Winter-holiday themed, learning activities for play-based, learning FUN!
Yours in PLAY!
Teacher Karen