{This is a repost from 2011…but we’ll be doing the countdown again this year!}
It’s hard to explain to little ones that there are still 24 days until Christmas. Since we put up our tree, Alex is asking me every day, “Mom, is it Christmas yet?” When you’re little, you need VISUAL reminders.
This got me thinking about the Christmas Countdown chain that I used to make with my second graders every year. (I mentioned that in my last blog post.) You begin on December 1st with a chain of 24 links, then you remove a link each day. As the chain grows shorter, your kids have a visual idea that the wait for Christmas is growing shorter!
For my boys, I designed a new star topper in Photoshop. After printing and laminating one copy for each boy, we made paper chains together. I stapled the chains, but Max handed me a green chain, then a red chain to practice colors. Alex helped me count to 24 links. Both boys hung their own chain on their bedroom door.
You can keep it just that simple, OR you can use it as I did with my second graders: write a simple prayer request on each link. As you remove it before bed at night, include that request in your bedtime prayers with your children. My second graders wrote down their classmates name. For your family, you could pray for friends, relatives, neighbors, or anyone/anything else that comes to mind.
As long as I was designing a printable, I figured it might as well be shared.
Click on the picture to download from Teachers Notebook…
No comments:
Post a Comment