Color Me Kinder: Christmas

Aahhhh!! Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments!!! Boy, am I lovin' the way my classroom smells after making these!

They are really simple and easy to make. If you've never made them before- don't worry it's not that difficult at all, ok I lie, the clean up is terrible!! They take a a day or two to dry completely, and you can also bake them in the oven if you need them to dry right away.

It took about 4-5 days to complete the whole thing. We did it in steps- a little each day.

Here are the ingredients you'll need: applesauce, glue, and ground cinnamon. The recipe I used calls for, 4 cups of cinnamon, 3 cups of applesauce, and 1/4 cup of glue.

I mixed them all together in a big bowl. As I did this, one of my little boys yelled out "eewww, it looks like poop", which brought on a whole bunch of gross comments and squeals by my "girly" girls...sigh. I gave each student a small piece of construction paper, and a small scoop full of dough. I had them knead it for about 5 minutes. We counted to 100 a few times and sang a few songs while we did this.

When the dough was ready I had them flatten it with their palm and then they chose a cookie cutter of their liking.

After they kneaded their dough and cut out their shape with a cookie cutter, I laid them out to dry for a day or two flipping them over each day so the other side could dry. I used an old pencil to poke a hole at the top in order to hang it later.

This is probably the only time you'll catch me using glitter in my class. I just hate how it gets all over the place!!

I broke a paper clip in half and used it to feed the ribbon through. And at the back I wrote "Kindergarten 2012" with a black sharpie. I truly hope it's something their parents will cherish and enjoy.