Festival of Trees

It's that time of year again! The Museum of Art and Science has it's annual Festival of Trees and my students and I love to! At the Academy for the Blind, we make sure our projects contain a tactile element, but this year, one of my students suggested we incorporate sound. So we made clay bells to hang, and we have a speech device on the tree skirt. It was truly a sensory tree. The museum employees say that children know just what to do when they see the button. They run over, push it, and hear my students wishing them a merry Christmas!

For our 3D snowflakes we used discarded Braille book pages. It's been fun watching my students find words and parts of words on these ornaments that they can read, like little hints on what story may have been contained there before we cut each page up into 6- 3 to 5 inch squares. We folded the squares, diagonally twice to make a triangle, which had three slits cut into the side, parallel to the none-folded bottom, longest side of the triangle, Then we opened and glued the strips to make each of the six portions of the snowflake which were than glued together. You'd probably need to watch a video to know what I'm talking about and there are plenty out there for you to choose from.

We spray painted some red and some green, while leaving plenty of them white. They are supposed to be snowflakes after all, but we didn't want it took look like we just dumped a bunch of copy paper on the tree, and the spray paint helps intensify the Braille's texture. Then we used red and green card stock to make different kids of ornaments, that don't require much time. We were down to the wire

I took about a dozen students on a field trip to the museum to decorate the tree. Our assigned tree ended up being right by the entrance to the museum and it didn't take us long to finish the task. Then we were able to explore the museum.

The hands on exhibits are the most fun, and my high school students are fun enough to participate in things like puppetry, building toys, fossil digs and magnetic tiles. I love the museum; I love my students; and I love celebrating the season!

 

A Star is Born: Making paper star ornaments.

I find it funny how slowly and painstakingly some remove pretty wrapping paper from a package, I find it funny that some people slowly and painstakingly remove pretty wrapping paper from a gift, only to throw away a few days later. If you have a favorite paper and want to preserve it in a fun way, why not cut it into squares and make ornaments from it during the Christmas break "Lord of the Rings" marathon (or whatever binge watching you do while on break).

They're not hard to make once you learn the steps, which begins with cutting a square of paper, I think I used 7 inches and it worked well. You fold the piece of paper in half, and then take a corner (starting with the folded side) and line the top up with the side, making a little triangle at the top. Unfold and do it with the open side.








After you open that, you'll see you've made a little X.  Take the folded corner at the other end and line it up with the center of the X. Make a crease.

 Grab the corner touching the X center and bring it back so the first edge of fold you made lines up perfectly with the fold you just made, to make a triangle with a little edge.  Then take the half that is still rectangular (with the X) and line the folded edge with your most recent fold so that there is a point in the center of your original rectangle.  At the point (probably facing you, on the original folded edge) crease so that the two triangular shapes are overlapping and the backs are together.Then cut the extra.

 Cut the extra along the edge, and you should open the paper to find a pentagon (5 sides) .
















Take one side of the pentagon and fold it up so that the corners of the edge are just touching the creases that go to the The two points on either side of the center point, just above the center. Repeat that five times so that each edge has been folded and creased.

Then try to fold two sides that are next to each other at the same time, along the pre-folded creases. Where they overlap, there should be a little corner that sticks out the side.
Unfold it and then go around and do this until every corner has had a chance to be creased in this manner.

Grab each point and gently turn them in the same direction until you can press down to create a star shape with the back of the paper spiraling in the center.

Then turn the ornament over, and take the edge of each star point and fold the outer edge half way over so that the point of the pentagon in the center of the star goes to the center of the ornament.

The last corner will need to be tucked into the center, so that it all holds itself together.  It looks pretty nice from either side. I used red ribbon to make a loop and bow. My students helped me make some to send to the board of education for Christmas, but these could be done any time of the year, from sheet music for the refreshment table at a recital, or from gold paper and hanging from the curtain rod for your Oscar's party.  Find a chunk of time to figure it out and then enjoy the process AND the product!

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.

Christmas Gifts to Make

You don't have to break the bank to show someone that you love and appreciate them. Gifts of the heart are far more meaningful than gift cards.  Here are some ideas I've used in years past.

Paper Ornaments

I made a jar of paper Moravian Stars for a friend when I was in high school. I'd used a kit, which was just strips of paper and instructions. After I had grown and had dozens of nieces and nephews, I created kits for them to learn. Of course a finished star was included and could be a little gift on their own.  Four 1"X16" strips of paper makes a 4" star.

The paper 3D snowflakes require 6 squares of paper. I used 4 inch squares, which means that it takes 1 1/2 pieces of card stock per star. Scissors and glue are the the only other materials needed for this project, which means my kids could make gifts for their teachers for about 10 cents each. Middle School teachers know that each student has half a dozen teachers so they don't expect expensive gifts, and something homemade to use in their room or house is a nice reminder of the student.

One inch strips of paper stapled in the center, bent back and glued at the bottom make beautiful paper flower ornaments.

Mugs

I grew up using a mug that my Aunt Janet had made me. She made one for each member of our family. Anything with a name on it makes it extra personal. I decided to make personalized mugs for the next generation. This ended up costing almost nothing (clay can be dirt cheap) as I had access to the college ceramics studio, but it was very time consuming project, and for awhile I thought of it as a part time job. 

Sign Posts

One year I cut wooden 1X4s into arrows, painted them with white latex, and then painted the city names of loved ones and the miles from my house to theirs. I did this for each of my siblings who owned a home and added the city of my parents as well as my in-law's parents. I included the hardware, but not the poles (for obvious reasons). 

 Here is mine, in the backyard, with my folks, brother, and two of my sisters, all of who have home towns listed on my sign post. Wish they lived closer, but at least I can find the way to them.










Name Paintings
This is my favorite thing to give at baby showers, and kid birthdays, but I've given more than a few away at Christmas too. This is another gift of time and talent, as the frames are $10-$20, but if they were to have their own name painted it would cost about $40-$50.

Graham Cracker Houses

My family made graham cracker houses every year when I was growing up. I probably only missed one year in the last 35 from this tradition (when I was in Japan and couldn't find graham crackers). Each of my kids make their own and then we have carried on the tradition of Christmas caroling and delivering either a house or cookies to our neighbors.  Here I am, building 25 houses in advanced for my daughter's kindergarten class to decorate. The icing is made from 1 lb of powdered sugar and 2 egg whites (or pasteurized egg whites), mixed 20 minutes on a mixer. I place a scoop into zip lock plastic snack bags for kids to use pipe.

Goodies

Homemade cookies and candy are a treat for everyone who isn't diabetic. I have used inexpensive boxes, tins, paper plates and paper bags with ribbon to keep costs down and let me share with more people. Small loaves of pumpkin bread or banana bread look adorable with a ribbon and small card, and fit nicely into teacher's boxes. Consumables are the best gifts for people who already have everything they need and who want to avoid clutter in their lives.