Story Time: Christmas Trees

We read Eric Carle's Dream Snow, which is one of my favorite read alouds (they could play the "What's under the blanket of snow?" game all day!). And Little Blue Truck's Christmas by Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry. Both have some Christmas tree magic on the last page.

The craft was from Oriental Trading and they got to decorate their own little trees. No glue needed!

And in the spirit of Christmas, I substituted bells for the shakers for our songs. And sang Jingle Bells, of course. Several times.

I also found this fabulous Dream Snow pop-up advent calendar at Joseph Beth. After our stories, I put it on the floor and let them decorate the tree and fill the gift boxes with all the advent doors. The kids thought this was great fun, and I was impressed with how gentle and careful they were being to not rip anything.