Wednesday, December 8, 2010

A Nativity Craft


Two of the books we are reading this week are  The Christmas Story by Jane Werner, and Thomas Kinkade Studios' Silent Night featuring the lyrics of the beloved Christmas carol. 


R does not typically like books to be sung; songs are for singing, books are for reading.  That is her rule and she felt the same about this book (she has very few exceptions).  It really is a beautiful book, and Silent Night is one of my favorite Christmas songs.  C really enjoyed the book, and I enjoyed singing it with him. 

I tend to turn to crafts to help my children understand concepts, so we spent some time coloring, cutting, and gluing to help us retell the story of the birth of Jesus.


I found a printable nativity at Catholic Icing.  C and R each made their own; the pieces in the photo above were colored by C.  I printed all of the pages and allowed them to color them however they wanted.  Then we glued the stable onto the bottom of a shoe box and glued all of the people, animals, and the angel to paper towel rolls cut to size.  Here is the one R made:


Originally, I was going to glue the stable onto a piece of cereal cardboard, but the shoe box is much better because when we are done playing, everything gets packed up in the shoe box.

I really like to listen to C and R play with these on their own.  C sounds like he is playing with action figures, and R sounds like she is playing with dolls. 

I am linking this to the Geography/History linky at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, very nice! I'm going to have to remember this for when my little ones get older. I tend to be like R and not enjoy books that are songs!

danita said...

so cute! we still have our little people set that we use!

Jennifer said...

Oh, I LOVE this idea!!! You are such an amazing and creative momma! Have I told you lately how much I love your blog! ;-)

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Great sets! I have a post coming up about our nativity stick puppet set tomorrow. The books sound great, I have to see if I can still pick the first one up. Anna doesn't like singing book either - she has gazillion questions about the words (like "virgin") and doesn't get the story.

Brimful Curiosities said...

We have Kincade's Away in the Manger. If my daughter knows the song, she doesn't mind singing along. I used to sing "Snuggle Puppy" to her all the time when she was really little.

Charlene Juliani said...

Thanks for posting this...I have several nativity books that I wanted to incorporate a craft with but couldn't think of one. Now I have an idea and the template link, thanks to you!

bookmarking this, so I can find it again, when I'm ready!

momandkiddo said...

Have you seen "Christmas is Here" (new this year) by Lauren Castillo? It's a lovely book.

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Great idea with the shoe box!

Sherri said...

This is incredible!

Jenny said...

Oh, I really want to do this now. Every year, I think I wish I had a nativity they could play with. And this one doesn't look too complicated - as in, I might actually accomplish this one. Thanks for sharing!

Jenny said...

Oh! And it's always a dilemma around here whether to read or sing a book. The kids usually opt for sing which is good because I have a very hard time reading a song.

MaryAnne said...

Great idea to use a shoebox for the stable!

Debbie said...

I love how your nativity sets came out! I must see if I can get my hands on these books. Thank you for linking up!

Miller Moments said...

This turned out great!