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Here are some Christmas activities I completed in my classroom, students thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Painting their hands to make the Rain deer. Pretend play in Santa's kitchen and making models with the red glitter play-dough with gingerbread essential oil in, which made the class smell lovely....

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Early childhood theme based Maker activities..

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Early childhood theme based Maker activities..

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As the Gingerbread man says, "Run, Run as fast as you can...you can't catch me I"m the gingerbread man"! We have read 3 traditional versions of the Gingerbreadman story and the children are very good at comparing similarities and differences. We talk about what is the SAME and what is DIFFERENT! The traditional stories all have ended with the fox eating the gingerbread man, the children have become good at predicting the ending.

Today we read The Gingerbreadman baby, written by my favourite author, Jan Brett. This story was similar in some ways but the ending was much different! Ask your child how this story ended...I'll give you a hint..it ends with a gingerbread house!

Speaking of Gingerbread houses...

Take a look at our finished Gingerbread house, it looks amazing! The children are enjoying making play-dough cookies in the house, using cookie cutters, rolling pin and cookies sheets!

We have been lacing/sewing gingerbreadmen together, thanks to Peter's mom, Mara and for Forrest's mom for helping the children with this! We will decorate them with buttons, sparkles and ribbons! I like doing this lacing activity because it further develops fine motor skills as well as hand-eye co-ordination. The children are doing well with this!

We have been using the classroom IPAD and have been making gingerbreadmen as well. The children love using the IPAD and are becoming more independent. They are so technological advanced, aren't they?

The children continue to enjoy the different centres including the colouring, blocks and carpet toys. They play so well together! We have wonderful children in our class!
Gingerbread House Making:
We are going to make our own gingerbread houses on Thursay morning. Thank-you to everyone who has offered to volunteer to help! It is going to be so much fun. We will be using royal icing, peanut-free candies such as smarties, swedish berries, sprinkles, chocolate chips and candy canes. Your child may get sticky and bit messy but I can guarantee they will have so much fun!

Just a small thank-you to Sepideh, Syena's mom for donating Advent candy canes for our children. We have been giving them out to the children when they are the Kinderstar! Everyone will get their candy cane before the holidays even if their Kinderstar is not before the holidays! 🙂

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Ms. Jo-Anne 🙂

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JK/SK with Ms. Jo-Anne, Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Goyal

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As the Gingerbread man says, "Run, Run as fast as you can...you can't catch me I"m the gingerbread man"! We have read 3 traditional versions of the Gingerbreadman story and the children are very good at comparing similarities and differences. We talk about what is the SAME and what is DIFFERENT!

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And Rudolph
Almost tempted to add background music!

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My Christmas Tree.
With lots of colour baubles on the Christmas Tree temptation got the better of me and had to light them all up. Unfortunately could not get purple LED's so they were left out. This created a bigger challenge as we had to add to the circuit to cater for all baubles, but lots of fun

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I tried doing this one by using sticky tape to hold the LEDs in place but with limited success. So I decided to solder them onto the copper tape. This iron doesn't heat up well, so it took me a while as it was hard to get the solder to melt. But we got there eventually.

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It works...yay! Happy festive season everyone.

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LED - 5mm (Any Color)

Conductive Copper Tape

CR2032 Coin Cell Batteries

We sell a complete paper circuit starter kit that contains the parts needed for 10 projects or students. Use the button below to buy the kit or project book.

Buy Paper Circuit Starter Kit

The first thing you need to do is download the project template ZIP file and then print them out. Each project is 2 pages and it's recommended that you print them on one sheet of paper (front and back).

We've included a full color template and a black and white outline template so you can color it in yourself. The B&W option is great for STEAM projects or just to save printer ink.

Full Color Version

Black & White Version

For two-sided printing, check your printer properties or setting.

On our printer it gives us an option to print on both sides of the paper. To do this, select "Printing on both sides" and then choose "flip over".

NOTE: This project will still work even if your printer doesn't allow for two-sided printing. You will need to print the templates out on two separate sheets of paper.

Now it's time to make the circuit that will light your Christmas tree. You will need to apply the copper tape to the brown lines that are found on the template. Try to use a single piece of copper tape versus cutting it into smaller sections. The reason for this is because the conductivity is better when there are no breaks.

To learn how to fold the copper at the corners versus cutting it, check out our post: Paper Circuits For Beginners

Flip over the template and cut an "X" in the 3 red ornaments on the tree. Also, cut an "X" at the bottom of the yellow star. These cuts will allow the LEDs to fit through the ornaments so they are visible.

Now it's time to attach the LEDs to the top of the copper tape. The long leg of the LED is the positive (+) side and the short leg is the negative (-) side.

Bend the long leg (+) at a 90 degree angle and then do the same with the short leg. Make sure to remember which leg is which because once they are bent they look the same.

Tape the long leg to the side marked with a (+) and tape it down. Do the same with the short leg as well. Make sure there is a solid connection with the copper tape.

Attach the (4) LEDs to the spots marked on the template. Feel free to use any color LED as they all work the same.

Place the negative side (-) of a CR2032 coin cell battery facing down on the grey circle. Tape the edges of the battery down to the paper. Ensure there is no tape down the middle of the battery. The middle is where the copper needs to touch when the template is folded.

Fold the template in half and push the LEDs through the holes you cut. Once you press the bottom left ornament, you should see your tree light up. Congrats !

Print out the reindeer template and put it together just as you did with the Christmas tree.

Follow us on Twitter at @Makerspaces_com and tweet us when you make this project.

Buy Paper Circuit Starter Kit

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Christmas light-up cards using paper circuits. Free template PDF in color & BW. Great STEM or makerspace projects use copper tape, LED & coin cell battery.