The Many Names of Santa

     Hello all you beautiful mommas out there. I hope you have had a wonderful week this past week. It was a bit tougher for me emotionally, but my.son enjoyed every bit of it. Hold tight to your loved ones. I was reminded how quickly they may be gone today when hearing the tragic story of a young father who died in a plane crash in our area last week. His son was one of my kids buddy's from speech pre-k. I am sure his wife did not in her wildest dreams think her best friend would be taken from her so quickly.....

     So this week is the first week of Advent. A time of waiting and preparing for the coming of Christ's birth. Every morning I have incorporated an advent prayer to our morning routine. We are following this Advent calendar so when I write it out I am referring to what is in the above link.

     This week I thought it would be fun to do some history/geography using the Many Names of Santa. There are SO many santa claus names out there to use. These were just the first five that came to my mind. You can choose different ones if you prefer. I liked this theme this week particularly because yesterday was St. Nicholas' feast day, which for us Catholics is a fun celebration day to celebrate the real Santa Claus.
     Along with those above things we learned about the letter Oo and number 10


Monday:Intro Uppercase "O"/Santa Claus (North America)
Books: My "o" Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
Octopus's Garden by Ringo Starr
Journey Through the Ocean by Steve Cox

Songs:
Lift Up Your Heads Oh Mighty Gates
Octopus's Garden by Raffi or Ringo Starr
Must Be Santa by Raffi

Activities:
Advent Nativity scene prayer day one, empty stable and listen to the lift up your heads... hymn

Intro Uppercase "O" and Oo vocabulary. Work on "O" coloring page

Fill the kitchen sink up and use ocean colored food coloring and a little glitter and have fun in an oceany vibe in the kitchen.

Intro Santa Claus. How it is another name dor St. Nicholas. Do a santa coloring page. Sing Must Be Santa.

Tuesday: Intro Number Ten/Papai Noel  (South America)
Books: One Small Donkey by Dandi Daley
 Mackall
Ten Days and Nine Nights by Yumi Heo
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox

Songs: Creator of the Stars At Night
The Ants Go Marching One by One
One Two Buckle My Shoe

Activities:
Advent Nativity Prayer the Plants and the first Sheep. End with the hymn Creator of the Stars At Night

Review Oo vocabulary words

Intro Number Ten and coloring page.

Use cheerios to seperate into matching groups of pieces of paper with the numbers 1-10 on them and count together as the child helps make the groups.

Oil and water science project. Take a plastic bottle (we happened to have only a 2 lt, but use whatever size you want). Fill bottle about 2/3's water. Use food coloring for whatever color your child would like
 Bave your child help squeeze in the food coloring and then waych as it falls into the water to change color. Use vegitable oil to fill the bottle up the rest of the way. Now the child has a visual of how oil floats on water.

Intro Papai Noel and his version of St. Nicholas. Have a coloring page out for your child to color if he/she wants to.

Wednesday: Intro Lowercase "o"/Shengdan Laoren (Asia)
Books: Ouch! Moments by Michael Genhart
Animal Orchestra by Tibor Gergely

Songs:
Wake Awake For Night Is Flying
Oats and Beans and Barley Grow by Raffi

Activities:

Advent Nativity Prayer- the other sheep and the lantern (we do not have a lantern in our nativity so we used an battery operated candle) and finish with the hymn Wake Awake For Night Is Flying

Intro Lowercase o. Review Oo vocabulary words. Work on the o coloring page

Library day. In the car ride we played an opposites game. I would ask questions like...if we do not turn the light off it is...and see if my son could fill in the blank.
If you did not open the door you...it
If it is not up it is...?
Etc.
I was able to figure out which opposite concepts still need work, but in a fun way.

Fun with dry oatmeal

Intro Shengdan Lauren and his version of St. Nicholas

Thursday: Work On Tracing and Scissor Skills/St. Nicholas Feast Day Fun (Europe)
Books: Off and Counting by Sally Noll
Hop On Pop by Dr. Seuss
The Legend of St. Nicholas by Margaret K McElderry

Songs:
Jolly Old St. Nicholas
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent
This Old Man

Activities:

St. Nicholas Fun Day
Enjoy the fun things st. Nick left. Read the st. Nicholas book and watch the veggie tales st. Nicholas movie. Sing Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Advent Nativity prayer (the lamb) and then listen to the advent hymn All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent to close

Review the Oo vocab words and number 10.

Work on tracing and practice scissor skills

Go enjoy nearby town's big Christmas Lights Display

Friday:  Oo Vocab Review/ Pere Noel (Europe)
Books: Staying Over Night by Katy Petty and Lisa Kopper
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat by Lucille Colandro

Songs:
Savior of the Nations, Come
Biscuits In the Oven by Raffi

Activities:
Advent Nativity Prayer (the first wise men) and end with the hymn Savior of the Nations, Come

Review Oo vocab and vocab work sheet

Orange painting project- use cut and juiced orange to dip into paint and see the prints it makes

Play with the play kitchen oven.

Make some no bake oatmeal peanut butter cookies.

Play with cooked oatmeal like play dough

Introduce Pere Noel and his version of St. Nicholas legend and coloring page

These are ways that I found and enjoyed watching my kid explore with learning about. Can you think of better santa names to learn about or Oo activities? Or to help your young one be more involved in the Advent season? Drop a comment and ket me know