One of the most amazing things about the Holidays is to see how so many cultures celebrate in different ways. The book A World of Cookies for Santa: Follow Santa's Tasty Trip Around the World by M.E. Furman (Author), Susan Gal (Illustrator) is such a great book for children to see all the treats that await Santa on Christmas Eve and even try to make some of the recipes from around the world.
After reading this book to integrate the literacy experience you can either make some of the recipes at the end of the book or invite the children to create some of the cookies with loose parts and play dough. To set this invitation you will need loose parts (acrylic ice rocks, gem stones, buttons, wood rounds, rocks, geo wood shapes) play dough, Textured Rolling Pins, and Wooden Sculpting Tools.
Play-dough is a staple in early childhood. It is a powerful way to let a child use their imagination, strengthen the small muscles in their fingers, and encourage a child's language + literacy, science, math and sensory skills. It is quite possibly one of most powerful props for learning. Adding loose parts to decorate the cookie play dough molds inspires the children to think more creativevly while providing endless opportunities to continuously stimulate their curiosity. After all the best part of baking cookies for Santa is decorating them! Since loose parts are dynamic in nature, it brings about authenticity of formulating ideas and you can see a child's creativity shine in their creations.
Since children learn and retain information through their senses integrating a sensory materials and loose parts to represent part of the book will deepen their comprehension and connection to the concepts of the story.
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