With Christmas coming Celine brought out the felt Christmas tree for the children to help decorate.
Clara put some decorations on but, we quickly discovered, the felt decorations didn’t stick on their own. Celine brought out the stickers for the backs of the ornaments. Once the stickers were on the back Clara would put them on top upside down. She noticed by moving it that it wasn’t stuck. She moved the ornament until she was able to get it to stick.
Celine held the sticker and Dean took it off placing it on the back of the ornament. He would twist and turn it until he figured out how to get it to stick onto the tree. He would pull them off the Velcro stickers and put them back on as well.
Atlas reached into the bag to pick out the decorations she wanted. She took the stickers off Celine’s finger to put on the back then put it onto of the tree. When it didn’t stick Atlas picked it back up, turned it over, and pushed it on so it would stick. She would sign, “more,” and clapped her hands when she got them to stick on the tree.
Matthias took the sticker off Celine’s finger and felt the sticky texture before putting it on the ornament. Celine held out two different ornaments and Matthias would choose the one he wanted to put the sticker on. Matthias placed it on the tree upside down when he noticed it wasn’t staying and he picked it back up. He held it for a little while then turned it around and flipped it over to get it to stick to the tree.
Millie sat with Jaspreet and held the decoration. Jaspreet helped Millie hand over hand to place the decoration onto the tree. Millie laid on the tree to feel the other decorations.
Beau looked at all the decorations on the tree then noticed Celine had the sticker on her finger. He pulled off the sticker and felt it before placing it on the decoration. Celine held out choices for Beau which made him smile. He picked the decorations by putting the sticker on and then putting it on the tree.
Celine wonders if the children have helped to decorate trees at home.
To extend this activity we could bring out the mini tree with ornaments, as well, we could paint with ornaments.
During this activity the children used their fine motor skills to put the stickers on the backs of the decorations and then place them on the tree. They used their sense of touch to feel the soft texture of the felt decoration and the stickiness of the stickers. Dean, Atlas, Matthias, Beau and Clara used their problem solving skills to figure out how to get the decorations to stick.
