Christmas Poems for Kids

Here Is The Chimney

Reindeer Pokey

5 Little Christmas Trees

Christmas Bells

5 Little Snowmen {free printable}

Find even more Christmas poems for kids on Laptime Songs.

Poems and Early Literacy

Learning nursery rhymes at a young age has proven to benefit those children as readers at 8 years of age. For a full review of the literature on this, visit Mel’s Desk and follow through all the comments. Great information there!

Here’s my take on it: Nursery rhymes expose young children to the structure and sounds of language. The more exposure they receive, the stronger the foundation they build. When their language foundation is strong, especially in the sounds of language, they can transition from spoken to written language more easily. These benefits, while valuable, are also long term and will take years to see the fruits of your labors.

For more immediate gratification, here are some fruits you can see almost right away when children are exposed to nursery rhymes, and I would extend that to rhymes, songs and fingerplays in general. Repeating rhymes builds the early literacy skill of phonological awareness. Helping children hear the individual sounds of language and how those sounds work together to form words builds vocabulary and grammatical patterns. Nursery rhymes are perfect for helping little ones get a sense for the feel and rhythm of the language. They also begin to recognize rhyming schemes that show them how sounds are used in the language. Setting words to music is another way to slow down the language and help little ones hear the individual sounds that make up words.

Ready for all that awesomeness to unfold for your little one? Start right now by sharing these Christmas poems for kids from Laptime Songs.

Two Turtle Doves Craft

Inspired by these sweet birds that popped up in my Pinterest feed, we set out to make two turtle doves out of simple shapes. After studying a google search of turtle doves, we decided to go with white and brown for our colors and to create a fanned tail. Since turtle dove bodies appear to be rather long, we added a circle head to the original bird. We used cookie cutters to make our circles and triangle that we cut out of the paper. We dabbed the cutters on an ink pad then pressed the cutters to the paper to leave the shape that we used as a guide for cutting.

Cut out of white paper:

two large circles

four small circles

Cut out of brown paper:

two medium circles

two triangles

hole punch four circles

Cut out of orange paper:

two triangles

Assemble Your Two Turtle Doves

To assemble the body: Fold each of the large white circles in half. Do the same with the medium brown circles. Using a glue stick, attach the brown circle to the large white circle placing the fold in the brown on the fold in the white. Fold the brown triangle in half and glue to the underside of the white circle, again placing the folds inside each other.

To assemble the head: Fold the bird in half along the fold. Apply glue to one small white circle and place at the tip of the bird opposite the tail. Place the orange triangle for the beak on the glue side of the small white circle. Apply glue to one side of the other small white circle and place on the small white circle attached to the body. The beak and the tip of the body should be sandwiched between the two small white circles. Glue hole-punched brown circles, one on each side of the head, for eyes.

Repeat again for the second turtle dove. My older girls were able to stamp the cookie cutters on to the paper and cut out their shapes without my help, just my supervision. For my younger ones, I would prep this activity by cutting all the pieces ahead of time and then beginning this activity from the assembly directions.

These two turtle doves are just darling! Since the bottom edge of the body isn’t glued together, they can rest on a flat surface. We found that our turtle doves rocked with the beak dipping down to the table. We imagined the two turtle doves were pecking for seeds. By giving the tail a slight push, we enjoyed watching our turtle doves rock back and forth for quite some time.

Turn Two Turtle Doves into an Ornament

Since turtle doves represent love and devotion, we created a heart shaped pocket for them. Again, we used a cookie cutter to make the shape and cut out the heart from thick scrapbook paper. Then I hole punched up the sides and sewed the yarn through tying it in a bow at the bottom. Now the two turtle doves have a lovely home on our Christmas tree.

Happy Holiday season! What fun memories are you making with your family this year?

This post is part of a festive blog hop series for the ’12 Days of Christmas’ – a lovely collection of craft ideas hosted by Silly Sparkles!

Click on the image above to follow each of the 12 Days of Christmas craft ideas!

Taking part in this blog hop are:

Silly Sparkles – A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Because Babies Grow Up – 2 Turtle Doves

Building Blocks and Acorns – 3 French Hens

Messy Little Monster – 4 Calling Birds

Multicrafting Mummy – 5 Golden Rings

Swords and Snoodles – 6 Geese a Laying

Craft Ideas for Kids – 7 Swans a Swimming

Three Foot Cooks – 8 Maids a Milking

Making Memories in the Chaos – 9 Ladies Dancing

Adventures of Adam – 10 Lords a Leaping

Play Explore Learn – 11 Pipers Piping

Learning and Exploring Through Play – 12 Drummers Drumming

Welcome ALLterNATIVE Learning readers!

I’m so excited to have you stop by today and check out Because Babies Grow Up. My babies have been growing up on this blog for about 5 years so the archives are a treasure of fun activities, crafts, play ideas that have been a big hit with our crew.

If you love to craft with your little one, this Twinkle Twinkle Little Star craft for preschoolers has been a big with with our kids when they were preschoolers. Another favorite with our kids was when we tried to guess what babies were thinking with this fun craft inspired by the song Mama Dada Blues.

If you’re after ways to make reading fun, check out our Three Little Pigs Store or our I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly activity. For more information on early literacy skills and how to help your little one develop them, check out this series on Emergent Literacy. (It starts at skill #1 and links to all of them within the post.)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t invite you to enjoy some awesome music that is perfect for kids with a sound you’ll love as well. This genre of music, called Kindie, is growing quickly as more musicians are making quality music for the whole family to enjoy together that draws on experiences and topics of interest to children. Some of our favorites are Bari Koral, Recess Monkey, and the Okee Dokee Brothers.

Thanks for visiting! Hope you enjoy your stay. You can keep up with Because Babies Grow Up on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.

I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment letting me know what you loved about your visit today.

When we lived in Utah I volunteered at the Orem Library as a story time teller for the youngest age group. Since it was for babies and young toddlers, it was called laptime. I loved learning how to incorporate rhymes, books and songs into a 20 minute experience that brought the joy of language and reading to little ones and their caregivers. I still use these skills when I plan playdates or community programs, or holiday gatherings. That’s why there’s a mix of Thanksgiving poems, songs, books and a hands-on craft in our Thanksgiving plans. Combining all of them together builds on the learning for each child as it’s easier to make connections from new information to already known stuff.

Our (hopefully) 20 Minute Plan

Start with the hands-on craft. Starting with the Feather Letter Turkey from Jodie at Growing Book by Book, the kids have something active to do while they transition into learning the Thanksgiving poems and songs. There are lots of ways to start a story time, but I’m choosing the craft this time because I think it will be something fun for them to use while we sing the Thanksgiving songs and learn the Thanksgiving poems.

Introduce the Thanksgiving poems and songs. While I’m crafting with my kids, (or cooking with them, or folding laundry with them) I often sing whatever song I know that our craft brings to mind. I find my kids are really willing to join in with me in reciting poems or singing songs during craft time. So while the kids are cutting feathers and coloring their turkey, I’m going to introduce the songs and poems. Here are the five I’m using next week.

Thanksgiving Poems and Songs

Mr. Turkey (sung to Are You Sleeping)

If You’re Thankful and You Know It (play on If You’re Happy and You Know It)

Hello, Mr. Turkey (also sung to If You’re Happy and You Know It)

Thanksgiving Day (4 line poem)

Turkey Poem (4 line poem)

Once everyone has their turkey finished, we will recite and sing the Thanksgiving poems and songs. Kids love repetition! Especially if they like something, they want to do it again and again. They are hardwired this way to facilitate learning. Once we’ve gone through all the poems and songs, I usually ask which is the favorite and we’ll do that one again. If there are multiple favorites, then we’ll do each one. I know it sounds like a lot, but it takes about a minute to recite the Thanksgiving poems and only a couple minutes for the longest song.

Once the wiggles are out, we’ll cozy up with our turkeys and read two books. Both of these books have great rhythm and rhyming so make for fun read alouds. We’ve had Gobble-Gobble Crash for a few years and have loved it. Though this year Scott is particularly fond of it. He requests it at lunch time frequently. Thanks for Thanksgiving is new to us this year and and I’m excited to add it to our collection of Fall/Thanksgiving books that I look forward to pulling out each year.

And that’s it! I’ll leave the kids with the books and their turkeys and run off to help with anything else that needs doing.

In keeping with the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m so thankful for the time I was able to volunteer at the Orem Library. It changed my life and has continued to shape who I am and how I spend my time with my kids. I’m also very thankful that we have four kids who ALL love books. Sammi has started to disappear and I’ll find her in her room totally engrossed in a book. I love that!

What are you thankful for this year?

I’ve heard countless stories of parents abandoning bedtime plans because their child doesn’t appear tired and so they let them play in an effort to wear the child out to be ready for bedtime. But it could take hours for the child to behave in a way that looks tired to an adult. So, the second I see tired energy taking over, we double our bedtime efforts. Part of our bedtime routine is reading books and singing songs. The books are usually read just before getting into bed with songs finishing up our bedtime routine. These two activities, books and songs, are the perfect way for our kids to settle down and drift off to sleep.

Some nights it feels like we’ll never get to that point, though, with all the tired energy creating chaos as we move from bath to pajamas to teeth brushing. On nights like this, I reach into my bag of tricks and pull out these bedtime poems. I’ll choose whichever comes to mind or seems to relate to what we’ve done during the day. Instead of nagging to please come back to the bathroom with that tooth brush! I’ll just recite a poem. The rhyming and the rhythm of bedtime poems naturally draws children’s attention in. Some nights I just repeat the same rhyme a few times adding in tickles or silly faces. Other nights we’ll run through all the poems I can think of.

Let’s build your arsenal of bedtime poems to help you fight the tired energy. These 10 bedtime poems are a great start. They are found in the Mother Goose Treasury. Often, after we’re done and ready to read, we’ll find the poems we recited together in the book and read it one more time. The illustrations are so beautiful in the Mother Goose Treasury published by Parragon. It’s a great way to transition into the reading portion of our bedtime routine.

10 Bedtime Poems

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Hey Diddle, Diddle

Golden Slumbers

Now the Day is Over

Lavender’s Blue

Star Light, Star Bright

Go To Bed Late

Bedtime

Wee Willie Winkie

Just click on each title to find the full lyrics in case you need a little reminder. Also, to help with remembering the lyrics in the heat of battle (agains the tired energy) I created this printable with the words to 6 of these bedtime poems. Just print it out and cut it up. You can keep them in the bathroom, on the dresser in your kids room, or where ever the tired energy seems to interrupt your bedtime routine.

Bedtime Poems Free Printable

[socialshare-download href=”http://laptimesongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/bedtime-poems-reminder-cards.pdf”]Bedtime Poems Free Printable [/socialshare-download] Instructions: Print this sheet of bedtime poem cards on sturdy paper. Cut out the cards. Laminate if desired. Keep cards in the bathroom or on your little one’s dresser. Choose a poem to focus on each night or each week. Recite the poem during your bedtime routine to help your little one stay focused on getting ready for bed.

Don’t forget to follow up your poem by finding it in Mother Goose Treasury. This helps your little one learn so much about books and develops early literacy skills that will help them as the become readers.

Elli loved this craft, too!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star-y Night Craft for Preschoolers

We’ve been working on colors and chose this craft to work more on the color yellow. I drew a cityscape on a piece of blue construction paper. The Eiffel Tower just sort of happened. My favorite though was when Scott added a star to the top and showed me, calling it the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t know my heart would be so happy about him recognizing and loving this structure.

I cut strips of yellow paper then had Scott cut the yellow strips into little bits. While he was cutting the bits I drew the cityscape and tore small pieces of Duck Tape (that we got from our awesome Family Forward trip to Universal Studios Orlando last summer)

Scott enjoyed gluing the star bits in the sky and then adding in the Duck tape stars. We had fun talking about the color yellow, gluing, and his strategies for where he placed the stars. He stuck with this Twinkle Twinkle Little Star craft for preschoolers longer than I had expected. He was also very excited to show it off to his dad when Brent got home.

Looking for more Twinkle Twinkle Little Star crafts for preschoolers? Check out these Twinkle Twinkle Little Star crafts.

A treasure basket is a collection of items, usually around a theme, that have different characteristics for babies to discover. You can include objects of different sizes, weights, textures, colors, etc. Little ones love to explore a new object and then when the newness is gone, they move on to the next object. Treasure baskets accommodate this short attention span perfectly because they are easy to reconfigure when your little one is tired of its contents. My friend Melitsa has an ebook which contains tons of ideas on different combinations of objects that you can safely include in a treasure basket for your little one.

We’ve used this idea for traveling by putting the collection in a backpack instead of a basket. We’ve also used the treasure basket concept for play dates by placing several baskets around for little ones to explore. I have also used the treasure basket to entertain my babies close by while I clean or cook. There are so many ways to adapt this concept to fit the needs and interests of your baby.

Check out Melitsa’s page all about treasure basket play to get more ideas on how to use treasure baskets with your little one!

Ladybug’s Picnic

Boom Chicka Rocka

Once I Saw a Little Bird

What Does the Fox Say?

Going on a Bear Hunt

Old McDonald

Wheels on the Bus

Five Little Speckled Frogs

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Of all of these, the Itsy Bitsy Spider is Scott’s favorite. Which is your little one’s favorite?

In Keith Torgan and Barbara Siesel’s version, Green Golly is the name given to the baby girl traded to the witch for a plate of leafy greens. The witch is afraid of Green Golly’s beauty and the attention she began to receive from the fellas. And so Green Golly finds herself very, very bored in a tower. To alleviate her boredom, the witch introduces her to the flute and the great classical composers. The audio telling of the story weaves Barbara Siesel’s beautiful flute playing into the story introducing young listeners to Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Korsakov.

If you purchase the book through the publisher or from The Green Golly Project, the book comes with the CD. If you purchase through another retailer such as Amazon, the CD is sold separately. However, there is a Story Sticker QR code inside the book so that you can access the audio telling of the story through the app. That code is available in all copies of the book (including those where the CD is included.) The CD contains a dramatic telling of the Green Golly story. We had the opportunity to review the CD a few years ago. You can read our review of Green Golly and Her Golden Flute here. Back to the book…

The illustrations in the book are magical. I love the drawing style and the color combinations. It’s whimsical, filled with little details throughout to explore as you listen to the story. I love this description from the press release: “Suzanne Langelier-Lebeda’s charming illustrations partner beautifully with the book’s text, narration, and music to create a work that has unity, contrast, and a lively flow of energy from one page to another, striking a healthy balance between classical children’s illustration and the modern graphic novel.”

I’m excited to be able to offer a copy Green golly & Her Golden Flute, the picture book including the CD, to a BBGU reader! I’m thinking 57 minute quiet time for you, right here! It is that captivating to little ones. Just fill out the Rafflecopter widget below. There are two different questions to answer for some easy entries. You’re welcome
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Elli making messes while I was in the shower

I have raised two children, two very different children, and I have seen my successes and my failures. I have learned something in hindsight that I would like to pass on to those who are just starting out with their own young children. It is ever so much easier to discipline a small child than to wait until they are older. You have to have the rules set down from the time they are born or you will make their lives much harder than they should be and yours as well. There is nothing more painful than to see a teenage child suffer through behavioral problems that you could have done something about when they were young. It also breaks your heart as a parent when you have to stand by and you can no longer do anything to help them because our society today takes it out of your hands when they become teens.

One of my children was an over-achiever and was always trying to please. If she did something good she would try to top it the next time with something even better. This sounds wonderful but in the long run it was a detriment for her. I did not realize it or recognize it until it started to cause her pain and heartache so I am sharing with you now. She was so stressed out trying to better herself and win our praise that she started to have emotional problems. She started to pull her hair out, not consciously mind you, but nevertheless she did. It is a disorder called Trichotillomania and it is brought on by stress or depression. I was absolutely shocked one day as we were drying her hair to find out she had a bald spot going all the way down next to her part! She did not even realize what she was doing.

After going to the doctor and finding out what we were dealing with we started going to counseling and I found out that I was putting pressure on her just by being so proud of her! I had to reassure her that she did not have to make straight A’s and that she could relax and just do what was easy for her. I had no idea she was suffering from my praise and wanting to continue to receive my favor. Beware of the over-achiever. They are under more pressure sometimes than the child that does not want to do anything. I had one of those too.

My second child, a boy, who was seven years younger than his sister was just the opposite. He did very little willingly, he had to be persuaded to do his homework, chores, be thoughtful of other people, etc. He could make a ten minute homework assignment take an hour by sliding down in his chair, whining, distractions, and on and on. You had to take him by the hand to get anything accomplished and make sure he was on task. From the very beginning the teachers were saying he had Attention Deficit Disorder and wanted him on medications. I was doing everything I could to keep him off of drugs because he was only five.

When I was pregnant with my son I went into pre-labor at six months and the doctors said he was not fully developed. They put me on a drug to stop me from dilating which made me shake terribly. When I expressed concern about this and what it would do to my child they said it would not affect the baby but they changed it from taking it orally to a subcutaneous drip. It helped my shakiness somewhat but I was still very concerned, but they told me I had the choice between this or having him come out not fully formed. Some choice. All these years later I find out that they have banned this drug for use on pregnant women but are just now doing studies to find out what damage it has caused.

When he was born it was apparent that his nervous system was not quite what it should be. He cried easily and got upset quickly but he was a sweet child and fairly easy going. When he would do something ornery he would just smile and his eyes would twinkle and at the time I felt sorry for him and let him get by way more than I should have. At the time it seemed like a good idea but later on I found out that instead of doing what was best for my son I was actually hurting him as well. When he complained that his homework was too difficult we got him tutors and when he took too long doing it I would jump in and help him. I and my daughter were constantly helping him do his chores or homework and doing our best to help him with everything because he never seemed able to do it on his own.

Both my daughter and I are sorry now that we helped him so much because when he became a teenager he had a very difficult time doing things on his own as far as school, work, and responsibilities. He got himself into trouble at school because he would not always do his work and had such a hard time keeping up. He got into minor troubles here and there because he was so used to someone cutting him a break at home, but this did not fly at school. Instead of helping him we actually harmed him and made life increasingly hard on him.

Starting out as an adult has been very difficult on my son because he has a hard time taking responsibility and to keep persevering when it gets hard. Sometimes when we think we are helping our children we are not. Disciplining them when they are little and under our care seems so hard when you look into their little faces but if you do not then you will find yourself in a much harder place. Looking into the face of the young adult that you love when they are in trouble and the world system is in charge of making them face the consequences is oh so much harder. At that point there is not a thing you can do to help them and then you realize that you did not love them for their good but what was easiest for you at the time. If you can imagine your little one as a teenager calling you up from the jail begging you to come and get them it might give you the strength to be strong when they are small. Punishing them when they are little may make them sad for a little while but you are there to comfort them. Not punishing them when they are small will make a world of hurt for your child, something they will have to overcome their whole life. Or they may not overcome at all and continuously struggle throughout their lives.

Not too many people think about these things when their children are very young so that is why I am writing this to give you a heads up. Love your children for their good, for their future. We are the parents and our responsibility is to mold them into responsible, loving, contributing adults. Children take, adults contribute, and if you do not see your child contributing more and more as they age then there is something definitely wrong. But also beware of the over-achiever that you let them know that they do not always have to be topping themselves, and that you love them just the way they are. They need to know that by doing their best, not topping their best is enough.

Do not be afraid to correct your little ones while they are with you or the world will do it for you when they grow up and that is hard on everyone.

Author Bio:

Rachel is an ex-babysitting pro as well as a professional writer and blogger. She is a graduate from Iowa State University and currently writes for www.babysitting.net. She welcomes questions/comments which can be sent to rachelthomas.author @ gmail.com.