Make a Marshmallow Math Placemat to Count On For Christmas!

If you don't have access to a laminating machine, you may purchase alternative kinds of
 materials from many hobby stores and office supply outlets. These stores do sell individual
 sheets and/or packs of transparent adhesive covers for this kind of project. Just describe
 to them what you need to make with the craft project. Contact paper can also be used to
 waterproof children's placemats.

      How about assembling a cute little Christmas placemat for your early learner for the holidays? Parents or teachers can pre-cut the shapes from fun printed papers in advance. Then your young children can assemble and paste the large mug of Christmas cocoa onto a festive sheet of paper before laminating the entire mat. I also added a few Christmas stickers to my cocoa mugs. 

       Count how many marshmallows can fit inside your cocoa cup, or how high you can stack them before they fall! Try rolling dice to count out equivalent numbers of marshmallows too. Be careful, marshmallow math is not always so very reliable; the props often disappear the moment a parent's back is turned!

Above is a template, mug for hot chocolate or cocoa, that I have designed for
this counting placemat project.

Make More Christmas Placemats with The Kids:

• My "Time for Tea Version" for those of you who simply prefer tea or who live in England

 "Trimming the Christmas Tree" Game

       Two tiny Christmas trees are placed on stands, one in front of each of the two lines the children have formed. Each child has been given some little ornament for the tree. When the signal is given, the first child in each row is led up to the tree, blindfolded, and told to hang his ornament on the tree in the most artistic place he can ''feel.'' As soon as he has done this he tales off the blindfold, runs back to his line and puts the blindfold on the next player. This player is then led to the tree and he, in turn, puts his ornament on the tree, and when he has finished, hurries back to give his blindfold to the next trimmer. This continues until they have all put their ornaments on the tree.

       However, all this while the children in the other line are doing the same thing, and it becomes a race to see which line can first trim its tree.

       It  can hardly be said that trees so trimmed are things of beauty. Neither can it be said that one's opponents always appreciate one's blind efforts at artistic effect!