Christmas is a fun time of the year in the preschool classroom because of all of the separate themes you can do with the kids. Reindeer activities is one of those fun themes for preschoolers.
The excitement over Santa gets them super enthused! Reindeer activities allow you as the teacher to capitalize on that enthusiasm. Here are a few suggested activities to make the theme a success.
Art
We all have seen the reindeer made from feet and handprints. Parents love this project and what preschooler doesn't life painting with their feet. Apply brown paint to the child's foot. Make a footprint. Then place brown paint on each hand to place prints at the top of the foot for antlers. After drying place a red puff for a nose and googly eyes. Hats: Have children trace their hands on brown construction paper. Cut out hands. Measure a brown band of paper or sentence strip to wrap around the head. Staple the handprints to the back. Glue a red puff and googly eyes to the back. Candy Cane Reindeer: Take brown yarn and have the children twist around two candy canes at the curved part. Tie off in the back. Glue a mini-red puff and small eyes to the front Twist brown pipe cleaners around the two and shape into antlers. Craft stick: Take three craft sticks and glue in a triangle. Put the point facing down and glue a red puff on the bottom point. Glue eyes across the top. Twist brown pipe cleaners on the top for antlers.
Storytime
There are several books out that emphasize reindeer. I would suggest making a Rudolph craft stick puppet and tell the story of Rudolph. You can do this by singing the song even. You can also read Olive, the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh. Other good books for storytime are The Little Reindeer by Michael Foreman and Santa's Reindeer by Rod Green. There is also a Wonder Pets Save the Reindeer book that some kids may show more interest to as well as a book called When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornellia Funk that has a fun reindeer character.
Homeliving
Make Reindeer food as a class. Pour some oats in a large bowl. Allow the kids to come and scoop out and place in a Christmas Ziploc bag. Print out a tag to tie to the bag that says the following: Santa's reindeer love to fly
and love a treat or two...
Sprinkle this food on Christmas Eve
It will lead them straight to you.
Tell the children to go out into the yard on Christmas Eve night and sprinkle the "reindeer food" over the lawn...It will help Santa and the reindeer find their house quicker.
Music
Of course there is the classic song which every kid loves to sing. However, there are some other reindeer songs to make music time just as fun. One such song in the Reindeer Pokey:
You put your antlers in, you put your antlers out.
You put your antlers in and you shake them all about.
you do the reindeer pokey and you turn yourself about. That's what its all about!
Other verses - you put your hooves in ...red nose ...fluffy tail ...reindeer body in..
These are just a few suggestions to make the reindeer theme come alive. If you have any additional activities, please leave them in the comment section below. Merry Christmas!
