Last year during the Christmas season I discovered the adorable book "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree: a Canadian Twelve Days of Christmas" by Helaine Becker. The book puts a Canadian spin on the traditional "Twelve Days of Christmas", with things like a porcupine in a pine tree and curling squirrels, replacing the more well known cast of characters. I loved the book for many reasons: it is Canadian, it reinforces counting skills, the illustrations are whimsical and unique, and there is just enough silliness in the pictures and text to keep kids entertained. I was thrilled to learn that it has been selected as our Scholastic Canada book of the month, and I was excited to share it with the other momstown Calgary moms. We read it together at our final music and movement playgroup of the season. The kids were climbing over each other to get a closer look at the illustrations, and it put us all in the holiday spirit. It was especially fitting that Laura and Imogen, who will experience their first Canadian Christmas this year, were the lucky mom and daughter who won the book to take home.
As you can see from the above image of the cover of the book, the pine tree featured in "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree" is not the full Christmas tree one might think of when one thinks of a Christmas tree. Instead, it consists of mainly straight sticks. On the same day that we read "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree" at playgroup, we read the classic Christmas book Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree" by Robert Barry at home. The book is a charming story about a man who buys a Christmas tree that is too large for his home. He chops off the top to make it fit, and the top is passed on to the household maid. She is delighted to receive it, but since it is a bit too big for her room, she trims off the top and discards it. The story continues in similar fashion, with each new character receiving a piece of the tree, until at last the very top finds a home in the house of a mouse.
The two stories were the inspiration for the "smallest to biggest" Christmas tree craft some of the momstown Calgary kids worked on. This is a great craft to have in your back pocket for when you need something quick and easy to keep the kids occupied for a few minutes. Even if you are not particularly crafty, you probably have all of the supplies you need for it on hand. Working on the craft is also a great way to introduce, or reinforce the idea of "smallest to largest" with your toddler or preschooler.
The instructions for the craft are simple.
1. Cut a piece of green construction paper into 4 or 5 strips of varying lengths (preschoolers can complete this step on their own). Have your tot glue them onto a contrasting shade of construction paper, with the smallest strip towards the top of the page, and the largest strip at the bottom.
2. Cut a small rectangle out of brown construction paper, glue underneath the largest strip of green paper to form the trunk of the tree.
3. Once all strips have been glued in place, let your little one decorate his or her tree with stickers, crayons, additional pieces of coloured construction paper, glitter, and any other items you have on hand.
What is your favourite book about a Christmas tree?
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