Manger Tutorial

As we do the Jesse Tree during Advent, M will put one piece of yarn (hay) in the manger per night.  On Christmas Eve, baby Jesus will go in the manger on top of the hay. 

I have received a couple of emails with questions about how we made our manger.  It is so simple, I’m almost embarrassed to show you. :) 

First, start with a small cardboard tube:

Cut it in half lengthwise:

Cut one of the halves in half again, width-wise:

Trim both of the small pieces just a little bit.  Then staple one to each end of the large piece:

Look, a manger! :)  I cut a square of brown felt with pinking shears and glued it to ours:

It’s not the most elegant manger ever, but it works!  You could also use a square or rectangle box for the main manger part (think a box from a bar of soap), and cover it with paper or fabric, or paint.

For baby Jesus, I simply cut two flesh-colored pieces of felt in a peanut shape, sewed them together (you could use glue) and stuffed them with a bit of fiberfill.  I drew a face on him, then swaddled him in square piece of blue felt and glued everything in place:

It works for now.  When M is a bit older, we may do something a bit nicer. :)  You could use a baby Jesus from a Playmobile or Little People set if you have one!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Size Sorting and Sequencing – printables

Well, I’ve been keeping busy with the Bob the Builder activity packs.  As long as M is responding well to them (and is he ever!) I’ll keep trying to think up some new things.  Thanks to those of you who have given me some excellent ideas!

These were super easy and fast to make, please don’t think I spend all day on the computer working hard at these things.  It’s a lot of fun for me too, as well as for M.

First I made a size sorting activity with all the trucks: There are twelve different trucks, with a small, medium, and large size of each.   The child sorts them onto the mats.  I’ve only put them around the mats in the photo so you could actually see the mats.   I think there are other things we may do with these too – like sort by color onto a color wheel.   If you think your little one would enjoy this, you can download it here.

I also made a size sequencing activity of just one of the trucks – Scrambler, who is actually an “off-road” 4-wheeler.  He’s crazy and hyper and M loves him to death.  There are 8 images, each one a bit smaller than the next:
These can be downloaded here.

Enjoy!  If you print these and use them, I’d love to know about it!!

Have a beautiful day! :)

P.S. I know it looks like a lot of cutting, but I watched the clock and I had it all cut out and ready to go in 12 minutes!  No, I wasn’t even hurrying. ;)