Books we read:
The Star of Christmas by Maria T. DiVecenzo
Where's Prancer? by Syd Hoff
Dewey's Christmas at the Library by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
We started out by singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"
Then we read The Star of Cristmas, followed by Where's Prancer
After reading Where's Prancer, I told the children that we had a little reindeer named Prancer at our library, and he was missing. Then they searched the room until they found him! (hiding in a corner behind the Christmas tree where I had hidden him earlier)
This is the "Prancer" that was lost in the library. The children had a lot of fun looking for it. After story time, some of the children were playing like they were Prancer and Santa.
After reading the last story, Dewey's Christmas at the Library (which the children loved...before reading it, I explained to them that is was based on a true story about a cat that lived in a library in Iowa) we did a fun craft!
We made reindeer puppets!
Supplies you need: paper bags, glue, scissors, crayons, large wiggle eyes, a pattern for antlers, ears, a mouth and a nose. (I used this template (click here) for the antlers, nose and one ear...then had to reverse the ear to have it work for the other side. I drew my own mouth.) You can have the children color the antlers and other parts, or cut them out od colored paper. Cardstock would probably work best for the antlers...I didn't realize this until I had all of the copies made for the antlers...so I improvised. If you don't want to use cardstock, glue craft sticks to the back of the paper antlers so they stand upright. Another fun idea which I did, but isn't necesary, use a sheer red paper cut in a circle to put for the nose for a "shiny nose" effect.
The children loved this craft. It took a little more time than some of the other ones we've done, but they had a lot of fun playing with their puppets and making them talk!
