My completed Advent Forest!
So here it is! What a sigh of relief! and oh what fun! I included Day 25 with Christmas gifts and made two extra trees and one shares a birthday with Jesus, so there's also an extra red tree some where in the forest!
Here is a list from the beginning days:
Actually Days 1 - 10 are on part 1 of the first posting here with some short cuts and part 2 is here. Part 2, shows what I put inside the geometric trees.
DAY:
11. Had school lined paper with a space for a drawing to write Santa a letter from the pre write list of Day 7 and Day 10.
Day 7 was a small note book to make a Christmas wish list and
Day 10 held animal huggy pencil erasers to add or subtract to their wish list and prioritize their Christmas Wish List to their own top 10 or 5
I included a greeting, a "sample" letter and a work bank on the inside of the tree.
12. Tons of stickers! Boxes and boxes of stickers to decorate Day 3, their bank for the less fortunate, their letter to Santa, any of the other Advent trees and extras to share to with friends! I was able to stuff in four boxes each into one tree!
The stickers are available at The Destiny of Things here.
13. Mini marker set: More craft supplies to decorate and practice draw in their note book, wish list and Santa's letter. Inside the tree I wrote directions on how to address an envelope and to "seek assistance" to get help with walking it to the mailbox.
photo via JunkDrawerLoveEtsy, markers available here
14. Glitter glue sticks: These come in handy for a number of things, just not for decorating! They have numerous items to accent and will need the glitter glue for the wiggly eye door charms on Day 21. I think I included one gold and one silver.
I love glitter glue and use it on many of my projects as glue and for adding embellishment, but these little sticks work wonders, especially for dots! Much easier to use than a huge bottle of it.
photo via JunkDrawerLoveEtsy, glitter glue available here
15. Stackable crayons! My students loved stackable anything! So I hope the little ones will love them too! Their Dad's birthday is coming up, so I suggested they start practicing drawing something he loves and nonchalantly interviewing him with questions, like what's his favorite color, cartoon character, car, book, etc. is now and when he was a kid.
The stackable crayons are to the left by the snowflake, on top of the Miracle Fortune Fish.
16. Magnifying glass: All kids love to explore and discover with a magnifying glass. In the inside of the tree, I suggested looking at their glow in the dark insect from Day 4 and then to go find real bugs to inspect.
It's over by the crayons to the left and I sent a green and red one so their wouldn't be any fighting over them.
17. Tracing Paper: All my students loved tracing paper, so I sent them some too. They can trace over anything and will do so for hours. In the inside of the tree, I included a greeting, a countdown and suggested they continue to get ideas and practice drawing for their Dad's birthday card.
18. Make their Dad's birthday card. Inside, I included directions to decide together, what to draw and write on it, included a "word bank" and some of his childhood favorites.
19. Pre Folded Pre drawn, ready to Cut Out Paper Snowflakes: Another activity my students loved! This is a very good lesson in paper folding, patterns, symmetry and not cutting on the folds!
I pre folded and drew on two snowflakes and included finished examples. One was a heart snowflake and the other was a diamond one. The diamond was just basically two cuts, like a triangle shape, so the little one could just cut straight. The hearts were curved for someone with older motor skills.
Afterwards they can cut their own! In the classroom we used a lot of newspaper as practice paper! Students were quite baffled if they cut up the folds and ended up with many pieces of snowflakes! Which we'd turn into a fractions lesson with pizza snowflakes!
Hmm... they look about the same, but the one on the left is the heart one and the other is all straight cuts, but one.
20. Patterned paper chains! Another loved activity! I sent my example and in a tree was pre cut construction paper in red, green and white to make their own pattern and then join them together to make one big one! Inside, I included instructions and ideas on where to put their paper chain decor.
Instructions included using their glitter glue sticks from Day 14 and to "seek assistance" to use paper clips to hold them closed while the glue dries or to "seek assistance" to use a stapler.
21. Wiggle eye door charms! I sent extra wiggle eyes with the red jingle bells inside the tree with directions, but I did put some in their red and green treasure chests from Day 5 and wrote that they'd need them down the road and to keep them safe in place to remember later.
I heard from a little birdy that these two little ones are having a difficult time keeping out of each others room without permission! Ha! So instead of a Christmas keep out door hanger, I thought some all seeing and knowing wiggly eyes on a jingle bell could decorate their door as a door knob charm.
If they still had the ones from the treasure chest they could add them too and the red jingle bell would also have eyes in the back of it's head! They would also need the glitter glue stick from Day 14.
The pirate treasure chests with the googly eyes are by Tree #5 and the there's an example of the them on the red jingle bells. All three items are at either The Destiny of Things or JunkDrawerLoveEtsy
22. Thank You cards! Yes, the dreaded thank you cards. I'm sure they won't be thanking me then, but hopefully they will later when they open up all their gifts and find that all their wishes have come true and want to thank the person!
I sent various sized small tags that I found at the Etsy shop, wrapworks. I included the three smaller tags from the shop, here with some glitter foam stickers of Rudolph, pine trees and snowflakes.
On the inside of the tree I wrote directions to write a short "thank you" note with a "word bank" or draw a picture of them using the present and suggested they ask their parents to include it in with their own "snail" mail thank you letters!
23. Gift tags: Easy to make gift tags for their friends or last minute emergency gift tags for gift wrapping. These included larger tags with two examples with pre written "To:" and "From:" in pencil for them to write over and a "word bank."
photo via The Destiny of Things, available here
24. Old Fashioned Hot Cocoa Recipe: A "seek assistance" activity on how to get ready for Santa's visit! with a reminder to leave carrots and their tops for the reindeer. Hang up your stocking and dream of sugar plums!
I also included memories of their Dad and how we used to get ready for Santa's big visit and a recipe for a no dairy, no sugar, gluten free choco latte recipe, in case Santa's on a diet!
25. The BIG day! Motions sensor birds, kinda like these to help with the "invasion of privacy" without permission issues and make life more fun! (It's also a common third grade issue)
Of course, I totally made a different unrelated holiday gift for the BIRTHDAY BOY! Just for him to keep all to himself!
Geometric Tree Advent Calendar via the Etsy blog, story by Diana Stainton of Pygmy Cloud
with directions, templates and step by step photos here
with directions, templates and step by step photos here
Thank you Diana Stainton of Pygmy Cloud!
What other Advent Calendars have you made? This is my first, but I'd like ideas for next year! I'm going to start next year's in October! If I don't find anything else, I think I'll make a Red Advent Forest or a Fairy Advent Forest.
Thank you Whole Foods
for not only providing me with good tasting gluten free organic foods because
that combination is not easy to find and is easier on my allergies! But
what a surprise it was to find 9 DIY Christmas projects in the coupon newsletter
with the Geometric Tree Advent Calendar catching my eye! And even more
surprised to find it was affiliated with Etsy!
Thank you Etsy for
not only helping me disperse my hoard out into the free world, but for
helping me find alternative healthier more productive ways to spend my
time, instead of random destress retail therapy to helping me find more
"purposeful" shopping.
Click on the shop names to visit my hoard listed daily: HoarderRehab, The Destiny of Things and VintageToGoEtsy and now JunkDrawerLoveEtsy!
There are about 106 items listed on JunkDrawerLoveEtsy
and will be
listing 1-2 new things there daily and 1-2 items at the other shops!
Thanks for looking! Maybe you'll find something to take home and share
your story too!
Many items I used for my Advent Forest are at all four shops, but mainly from The Destiny of Things and JunkDrawerLoveEtsy. Send me an email, if you are interested and I'll assist you or look around and see what you find.
One of the items I wish I had when I started this project were enough Advent numbers stickers because I used three to four packs for glitter number stickers and foam number stickers to have enough numbers! Next time I think I'd just write them in with a very fat thick tipped calligraphy marker in gold or silver.
I did find enough glitter rhinestone numbers all on one sheet, but I haven't had the time to see if they are actually enough, they are available here.
Here's a list, in case you want to get some ideas from our Etsy shops and I'd love to hear your ideas: tooth locket necklaces, treasure chests, fingerstache temporary finger mustache, gumball containers, mini marker set, wiggle eyes, Just Say No memo pad tablets, Miracle Fortune Fish, mini kawaii cute figurine erasers, mini jingle bells and more at HoarderRehab, The Destiny of Things, VintageToGoEtsy and JunkDrawerLoveEtsy!
Let me know, if you see other stuff "out there" to use next year! Or I might be using this idea as "Birthday Countdown" for my Dad next year! Maybe I'll turn it into a Camping Hiking Forest or a Valentine Forest, since his birthday is in February and he loves the outdoors.
Related Stories:
1. Geometric Trees Advent Calendar Forest: Hoarder Inspiration or Desperation, Story #17 or Creative Outlets, Story #2, Part 1: It has short cuts I found to be helpful and Days 1 - 10.
2. Geometric Trees Advent Calendar Forest: Creative Outlets, Story #2, part 2: It has Days 11 -17 and photos of what I put inside the geometric trees.
There are so many teachable moments with this Advent Calendar, like the history of the Advent Calendar. Here's a short history from wiki:
An Advent calendar is a special calendar used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas. The days often overlap with the Christian season of Advent.
Despite the name, most commercially available Advent calendars begin on
December 1, regardless of when Advent begins, which can be as early as
November 27 and as late as December 3.
Many take the form of a large
rectangular card with "windows" of which there are usually 24: one for
each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. One is opened every
day leading up to Christmas. The calendar windows open to reveal an
image, poem, a portion of a story (such as the story of the Nativity of Jesus)
or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item. Some calendars are
strictly religious, whereas others are secular in content.
And the last teachable moment, I'll end with is an odd and even number sets. Make an even forest and an odd forest and count by odd and even, etc.
I hope you had as much fun as I did! Thanks for stopping by!
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