Cardboard ornaments

Toddlers, pre-schoolers and multiple-complex-needs students need to make things in order to build fine motor skills and feel a sense of accomplishment. One way to keep kids and happy, busy, and learning, this month is to make ornaments. A cardboard triangle and rectangle make the tree-shaped base for this easy ornament. My students puddled and "scribbled" glue onto their shape before arranging little things onto the glue: expired pasta, fish tank pebbles, buttons, foam shapes, beads, etc. Be sure to watch that little ones don't put small items in their mouth and choke on them. 

We didn't even wait for the glue to dry completely before taking them outside and spray painting them. I hot glued ribbon for them to hang on the tree. The gold paint gives the tree a little bling, and you can pretend that the ones with askew trunks are supposed to be bells!

paper ornaments

My first Christmas as a new bride, my husband and I had planned on spending the holiday with family in another state, but car troubles that left us stranded, broke, and in search of a tree.  We found one for $15 and I filled it with snowflakes of hardened royal icing. A couple decades later, as a teacher, I find myself still wanting to fill a tree with creativity and time rather than expensive ornaments.
For simple ball ornaments, I cut copy paper in half inch (by 8 1/2 inch) strips. These were folded to find the center and students made "a plus sign" and "a multiplication sign" to glue together in a star shape. One strip of paper was used to make a loop, and then dots of glue on the ends of the remaining strips were used to attach at the top of the loop.  These paper ball ornaments can just be used by themselves, or a couple of white balls can be glued together to make a snow man ornament.

For students who wanted to try something else with the paper strips, I had them stack 8 pieces and staple the center of the stack. (Again, folding to find the center takes almost no time). Then the end of each strip was given a drop of glue to attach to itself, to form a flower petal.

For very low functioning students, I taped a couple of fuzzy craft stems (aka pipe cleaners) to the table by the end, place the other ends in each child's hands and then say, "cross over, switch hands, pull (apart)" over and over again until it was twisted. What takes a few seconds for someone without disabilities can take a long time for a child who needs help crossing their midline.

Students managed to practice some skills and contribute to the school festivities while having fun.

Wreath Ornaments

String buttons, beads or bells on wire; close the circle, add a bow, and you've got yourself a wreath ornament for the Christmas tree.  It's the holiday craft that even small children can do.

Other versions of the craft open up once you are old enough to work a glue gun. When my kids were little and I didn't have much money for decorations, I made wreath picture frame ornaments of far flung family so my children would remember their aunts, uncles, and cousins. I started with clean concentrated orange juice can lids. Construction paper on the back, and front (minus a hole for the picture), and red ribbon around the sides to cover the metal and disguise the metal base. Then I hot glued buttons around the edge.  For some other family members, I cut a back and front out of felt, glued it down and stitched the edges with red embroidery floss. Red buttons looked like big berries and red bows and loops finished it off. It was a weekend project that has brought 16 Decembers of enjoyment since. Simple or elaborate, wreath ornaments are gifts, gift toppers, or memory keepers.