I wanted to share some of my favorite "Countdown To Christmas" activities that we have done in the past.  I have made the countdowns easy to make and the children enjoy keeping track of many days are left until Christmas.

Countdown to Christmas Mats:

Print either on regular or cardstock paper. Glue on to a sheet of colored cardstock paper.  Starting on December 1st cover up the number 25 on the mat.  Each day cover up another number (24, 23, 22, etc) to count down to Christmas.

You can download the countdown mats here.

Scissor Skills Christmas Countdown:

I made countdown that also work on scissor and fine motor skills.  The patterns can be printed on regular or cardstock paper and the children glue them together where indicated to form a long strip.  Each day they cut off a number from the bottom of the strip until it is Christmas.

You can grab the patterns here and see a video of this activity by clicking below:

Christmas Countdown Chain:

​For this countdown we cut red and green construction paper into strips and put a number on each one. We alternated the colors of each number link ... for example the first one was red and the next one was green and the third one was red etc.

Children glued together the ends of the first link (number one) and then laced the second link through and glued the ends together.  They continued until they had connected all 25 links.

We hung the chain up and each day a child was chosen to removed a link from the bottom of the chain which would the show how many days were left until Christmas.

You can grab the number circle patterns here and see a video by clicking below:

I made turkey themed writing skills cards that are great for beginning writing strokes as well as fine motor development. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper ... cut them out and laminated them.

In this activity children trace the dashed lines with their finger and then with washable markers. I have included both black and white as well as color versions. 

You can download the turkey writing skills cards here.

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Here is another easy to make fine motor turkey craft.  You will need the turkey pattern ... glue ... tissue paper ... and scissors. Print the turkey on cardstock paper and cut it out (we glued ours on colored cardstock paper but you don't have to).

The next step is to cut or tear tissue paper into small squares and separate by color. Apply glue drops to the blank blank turkey feathers. We put glue in a small plastic bowl and the children dipped qtips in the glue and dotted it on the blank feathers.

The next step is to scrunch the squares of tissue paper and press them on to the glue dots on the turkey patter. We did one color per turkey feather but you can also just used mixed colors.

You can grab the tissue paper turkey patterns here.
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Here is a wonderful project for fine motor development that goes great with a turkey or Thanksgiving theme.  You will need colored cardstock paper ... scissors ... glue/glue sticks ... sequins ... and wiggle eyes.

Children cut a turkey body shape out of brown cardstock paper. Next they cut five turkey feathers from five different colors of cardstock paper and glued them onto the turkey body. They glued on wiggle eyes and cut a beak and gobbler from from orange and red cardstock paper. They then cut turkey legs from yellow cardstock paper and glued them on together with the beak and gobbler. The last step was to apply glue drops to turkey and press on the sequins.

You can see a video of this project below:

I made owl sliders for number recognition and review as well as fine motor skills. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper and laminated them.

Using and x-acto knife I sliced along the two lines on the owl. Taking one of the letter strips I pushed the left end up through the right slice of the helicopter and pulled it down through the left slice.

In this activity children pull the numbers strips through the owl and read the number that is displayed in the center of the owl. Once all numbers have been identified on the strip a new strip is put in. 

As of 2022 this activity can be found in the member's section which is also where I have added owl letter sliders.