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The Gift of Giving…Cards for Elderly

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One idea that is simple and can get even young children involved is the gift of giving cards to the elderly at senior homes in your area during the holidays.  As I find more card ideas, I will post them.

I love this card from Family Fun… JOY!joycard

This would be great to do a mini- lesson and use the Shel Silverstein book, The Giving Tree. Allow the children to express their thoughts on the meaning of the book as well as what giving means.

Making the cards can also be fun! How about trying this 3D snowball Card?

snowballcardOr this Dreidle Card

dreidelcard

Family Fun from Disney has great ideas for 3D cards.

In a rush? How about cards in an instant? Over at Family Fun, you can print out easy templates and glue pictures.

instantcards

Free Kids Crafts has another 3D tree that I love!

christmas_tree_popup

And finally, one of my favorite websites….Artists Helping Children has a bunch of links where you are sure the find the card craft that is right for your family! Here are just a few examples from there.

christmas_gifts

fabric_shape_card_1even_more_glittery_shape_cards

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Comments

  1. I absolutely LoVE the card ideas for the elderly. While I don’t have time to make cards for this Christmas, I do have boxes of new cards that I can write in and deliver tomorrow or the next day! I will begin making cards for Valentine’s Day though!!!!

  2. I have in the past worked with the elderly to make Christmas cards. They loved it. Would it be a good idea to have the kids work with the elderly to make Christmas cards?

  3. I have done cards for the elderly with kids before, but not kids and elderly together. It would depend on the temperament of the kids, I think. (And the adults, too, I guess!)

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Christmas STEM Projects

Holidays are a great time to pull in some themed STEM projects. Even kids who aren’t usually into science can get excited about making a reindeer fly or making a Christmas tree out of 3D shapes. Check out these fun Christmas STEM activities to try in your classroom or at home.

Speaking of making reindeer fly, there are lots of different takes on this engineering challenge. In the instructions from The Educator’s Spin on it, kids make a reindeer from recycled materials, then use a string to make it “fly.” You can also do this with a balloon, like in this version from Team Cartwright.

And that Christmas tree project? That one is from Steamsational, and it calls for making a bunch of 3D triangles you then assemble into a tree. The post includes all the tips you’ll need and a printable template for making the triangles.

Another cute idea from Steamsational is making Santa’s sleigh out of an egg carton. Give kids design challenges such as that Santa must stay in the sleigh, it should be able to move and pull weight. It’s so fun to see what kids come up with.

Science Sparks has a printable book full of Christmas-themed experiments with templates kids can cut out and use to make spinning sleighs, shadow puppets, a paper tube to test how much weight it can hold and more. These activities are really low prep beyond the printing, so they’re great when you need to fill a little time at home or at school.

If you have Legos and jingle bells you can make a simple engineering challenge by having kids build mazes that the bells can roll through. Get the details from Innovation Kids Lab. (And check out this fun book of Lego Christmas ornaments!)

Of course you can also put a Christmas spin on classic STEM activities, like making a baking soda volcano in a plastic or glass ball ornament (Little Bins for Little Hands), red and green magic milk (Fun Learning for Kids), Borax crystal ornaments (Go Science Kids) and more!

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