Mirror play activities have been making a regular appearance at our house lately, usually with some dry erase markers paired with some loose parts.
However, to switch things up, I set up this simple Christmas invitation to play for three year old K using a mirror and some Christmassy items. And he enjoyed it quite a bit.
So, if you're looking for a quick boredom busting idea that requires little prep, then this open-ended activity is for you. Let's take a closer look at what you'll need to recreate it at home.
What You'll Need for this Christmas Invitation to Play
This jingle bell activity is super quick to set up. Here's what we used:
- Small mirror - The ones pictured here was from the dollar store.
- Christmas cookie cutters - Ours are from this 101 Cookie Cutters set, which we've used for basically everything except making cookies.
- Jingle bells in Christmas colors (i.e., red, green, and gold)
I set all the materials out in a wooden tray next to the mirror. I also left a couple bells and one cookie cutter on the mirror as inspiration, to see what my son would do with it. Like so:
Toddlers & Preschoolers Love this Jingle Bell Activity (& You'll Love the Hidden Learning Going On!)
While, on the surface, this Christmas invitation looks simple and like nothing special, it does provide lots of opportunities for learning. For example, it reinforces math concepts such as volume and estimation. You can do some color matching. You can build vocabulary and work on fine motor skills. There's lots going on here.
My son K first made a green tree and filled it with green jingle bells.
Then he made a gold bell.
From there, he practiced some patterning. He decided to make a traditional striped candy cane, this one with red and gold stripes. You can see the start of his pattern here. Red, gold, red, gold, red...
Then he explored with the "cookie" cookie cutters (aka the gingerbread man cookie cutters) and made them dance around the mirror. It was pretty cute to see his imagination in action!
This Christmas invitation to play was a huge hit with three year old K. When I picked J up from school, he was excited to check it out too. He saw it and exclaimed, "Wow! What's this?!" and proceeded to spend quite a bit of time exploring the materials too.
