
Inside, we made some jingle bell shakers to use when we sing our jingle bell songs. It was a challenge for the children to figure out where to put the pipe cleaner through to make the jingle bells stay on, but well worth the effort! The children enjoy singing the bell songs which have parts where bells are played and parts where the bells must be still, and they are all excellent at refraining from shaking the bells during those parts. It's a fun lesson in refraining from something and then participating.

Another fun and tasty activity was separating pomegranate seeds from the pith and putting them in a bowl. We had these seeds with our snack. It's nice when a little fine motor skill exercise leads directly to food; some children did not save the pomegranate seeds until snack time! Another inside game, created by the children, is what I call "candy cane delivery cats". This is when the little kitties unexpectedly drop a little candy cane (which the children made) into your lap. The children love doing this back and forth to one another. I've also noticed them making pretend "Stone Soup" based on the story I've been telling about stone soup.