Snow-Dipped Star Ornaments

All other shapes aside, Squirrel first learned the word ‘star’ several months ago while going through his pop up nativity book waaaay early before Christmas. Since then, he excitedly points out any and all stars he sees everywhere we go. He loves them, and since Christmas began, he has not let a single star pass without stopping us all in our tracks running at, pointing to and yelling “Daarr!” maniacally showing every tooth he has grown so far in a big goofy smile.

Needless to say, a star based activity has pushed his buttons, and we have been working on a batches of these wooden star ornaments to give as gifts to his family members.

We used ordered these stars (completely no affiliation) and used basic kid friendly non toxic PVA, with shredded plastic ‘snow’ that came as a bundle of festive extras with our visiting Elf, and also epsom salt. Shredded plastic snow actually worked as reliably as i hoped, but it does mean watching him like a hawk in case he thought about putting it in his mouth, but nope, thankfully, jusy his hair, which we both found hiii-larious.

It was one of those days where I just wasn’t sure I had the mental capacity to deal with glue and snow being smeared over ever surface, so even if it wouldn’t even have entered Squirrels mind, I went for a little more control on my part, and decided that the highchair would be a good move.
I put him beside the kitchen tree where he could see plenty of stars, then stood back as he bounced in his chair with glee at the very sight of these little stars.

I collect these little trays, any tray that comes with little compartments, units, portions, you name it, for this very reason. I think this one had mini cakes in it or something. Anyway, it was perfect for this simple craft. I filled one side with  the salt or the ‘snow’ depending which batch we were working on, and the other with glue. I laid out a tear of greaseproof paper on a chopping board ready, and gave him a little demonstration.

Taking a star, offering it to him to feel it and all of its… err, arms? Pokeys? Protrusions? I like pokeys, we’ll go with pokeys- and then holding the pokey with the ready drilled hole, dipped it in the glue, giving it a bit of a gentle twist to cover the other 4 pokeys, then dipped it again in the other side with the snow, moving it gently so it covered well. I showed him how it covered, and talked him through the process, inviting him to look at each stage and providing descriptions of what was happening.

Then I let him have at it, he went straight it work and concentrated hard. He looks grumpy, but that is concentration. And breakfast on his face. Nevermind.

We kept talking and using descriptions, and every now and then he pointed at the other stars on the tree.

This activity was deliciously sticky icky. We love sticky. Its like the super experience of tactile sensory. He rubbed his fingers together and felt the mixture curiously on his hands, playing at dripping bits onto the stars from dangling fingertips.

After experimenting some time with the stars over and over, we starting keeping ‘finished’ ones back and placing them on the greaseproof paper to dry, and had a big wash down of all the sticky fingers.

We carried on with our day and the next day we came back and inspected our stars gently, using more descriptions; ‘hard’, ‘shiny’ and ‘dry’ among them and held them up to the window to let the sunlight glisten over them. So pretty!

Together we practiced hanging them on the tree, but these will be tucked away when they’re all done and given to our family members for Christmas in a little Squirrel made gift hamper.

This post is part of Unit 3. Winter & Christmas.

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