One $3 Christmas resource and 6 ways to play with it!

I am a huge fan of using one item in as many ways as possible and this Christmas I found a set of wooden Christmas shapes from kmart for $3 that I have used as is in:

· transient art

· sensory play

· maths invitations

· fine motor opportunities

· and for DIY resources.

There are 24 small wooden craft items and after getting 2 packs I went back for more!

Decorating Santa’s beard transient art style.

They were perfect for transient art or as Christmas loose parts (if you are not a purest). The invitation went with the book Have yourself a HAIRY little Christmas (there are 6 other was to use the book in another blog). The children enjoyed decorating Santa’s beard with them and other items (cotton wool, pinecones, corks and stones) I used Kmart Christmas tongs to add interest and an element of difficulty.

Hide and seek sensory play.

We adore using birdseed as it is not food and when we have finished if it was on the floor we sweep it up and feed it to the birds! Counting was added to this after a few days. I just used our DIY counting disks. These were made with vinyl but stickers work too.

Christmas counting continued!

To extend on the interest in counting I grabbed our old wooden advent tree and felt Christmas stockings which were perfect with number printed on them. I added green paper with number printed on it to count or cover. It was a challenge for some to pull the little drawers out and fit the wooden items in the little stockings which led to the next activity.

Decorating a wooden Christmas tree.

I have done this activity most years but use Margaret Mahy’s book the Christmas tree tangle. The book is fabulous for Christmas and a Christmas story basket, it is one of 10 that I have used. I used wooden cats, dogs and felt circles as they fit with the story. Now I have added the wooden Chritmas items too. This year I just place out the Kmart Christmas tree, rubber bands and the wooden Christmas items. A quick and easy fine motor activity that is always a HIT!

DIY stamps.

This took a little time but well worth it. I had collected a few fallen branches from the local park and cut them into ‘cookies’ and then sanded them on a belt sander. I did a BIG batch and what you see below should keep me going for 2022 for stamps and loose parts for small world play and story baskets. As you can see I made small, large and thicker ones for different sized hands and grips.

I added dough for stamping and then some popular books to support singing and storytelling. Slinky Malinki's Christmas included some new scissors that were great for cutting playdough.

The DIY stampers were easy to make with a dab of hot glue (as I did not want to wait to use them) but you could use PVA. The only cost was time making them inexpensive and easily replaced.

I will try ink with them in the next couple of weeks if there is an interest.

I am on the lookout for any other possibilities for these $3 Kmart Christmas wooden items so be sure to let me know if you think of any.

Until next time.

Michelle