Outdoor Tree Ornaments & the December Moon

One of my goals for 2021 was to start a blog and write a post each month. Well, here we are in the final month of 2021, and I am writing the 12th blog post of Lattes, Lashes, & Learning! To be honest, I am HORRIBLE at keeping up with new year's goals, so I am quite proud of myself with this one! With papers, presentations, report cards, and life piling up these last few weeks, I wasn't sure if I would get a post done this month, but now that I am done my assignments for the term, a little more of a casual writing project is welcomed! :) I was going to make a fashion inspo post for the final blog of the year, but I think I will save that one for the new year!

One of my professional growth goals this year is to incorporate more outdoor learning into my lessons. I have been sharing a lot of our outdoor activities on my Instagram page, @LattesLashesandLearning. However, I thought this week's activity would need a bit more of an explanation than a caption would allow.

We began the lesson by reading about the 12th moon, "Moon When Wolves Run Together" from 13 Moons on Turtle's Back, which is a book I highly recommend you using in your classroom. Then, we watched Etienna Moostoo-Lafferty's (@rootsandraine) video, "pawâcakinisîsipisim-December" (click the photo below for the link) which inspired us to decorate our trees outside for Christmas using a number of different ornaments that were animal-friendly.

Preface: This activity does take a decent amount of prep time, but it is so worth it! I also had 2 of my rockstar classroom EAs helping with this activity, which helped A LOT in allowing this to go smoothly. Below are the instructions on how we made each ornament.

Paper Cup Bird Feeder:

In preparation for this activity, I had my fiance punch holes on opposite sides near the bottom of paper cups (approximately 1/2 inch from the bottom) using a steak knife. This allowed for a smoother/easier way for the kids to insert popsicle sticks through the paper cup for the birds to use as a perch. I also used a hole punch to punch 2 holes on opposite sides at the top of the cups. I used an Exacto knife to cut a small square into the side of the cup right above where the perch would go (Note: Only cut three sides of the square so it is like a flap). It is important to not push the flap in yet. Students pushed a popsicle stick through the 2 pre-cut slits on the bottom of the cup and tied a precut string through the 2 holes at the top of the cup (they needed help with this). They then filled the cup with birdseed. Once they hung their bird feeder on their tree outside, we pushed the flap in so the birds could access it.

Dried Fruit Ornament:

I purchased dried cranberries and then sliced up oranges at home. I didn't slice the oranges as thinly as I should have, so learn from my mistakes and make sure they are sliced up thinly to save bake time! I baked the oranges on parchment paper at 200 degrees in the oven. The instructions I found online said that it would take 2.5 hrs at 200 degrees, flipping the slices every 30 mins for the first hour, then every 15 minutes after that. They also suggested sprinkling sugar over the slices for a more translucent-looking orange slice (I didn't notice a difference, TBH). My bake time was significantly more than 2.5hrs...It took me 8 hours! OMG! So, make sure your slices are very thin and that you use a paper towel to blot out as much moisture from the orange as you can. When the kiddos were creating these ornaments, we used thin wire to push through the oranges and cranberries and it worked perfectly!

Cheerio Garland:

These are pretty self-explanatory. As simple as they are, the kids loved making them! For ease, I precut string for them and we knotted the end so that the Cheerios wouldn't fall off!

Pinecone Bird Feeder:

I had the kids go for a hunt in the snow to find pinecones on the ground throughout our schoolyard. We used the same thin wire that we did for the dried fruit. We twisted the wire around the tops of pinecones that the kids found earlier in the week. We then poured birdseed onto a plate. My EA used a plastic butter knife to spread Wow Butter (a great peanut-free option for school) or honey (the kids chose which one they wanted) onto the pinecone. Then they rolled the pinecone in the birdseed.

This was a fairly time-consuming lesson, but it was a lot of fun! The next day we headed out and decorated our trees and recorded our learning in our journals. I hope this post inspires you to get outside with your class (or family) and make some great memories together!

Thank you all so much for your support this year. It truly means the world to me! Have a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year! See y'all in 2022!

XOXO,

Elle