Christmas bubble wrap fun

 This activity was part of some of our preschool at home fun today.  I picked up this roll of festive bubble wrap at Target, and the boys have been waiting patiently to see what it was.  In fact they were so curious that they opened it up in the store!  So, I finally took it out today so they could have some popping fun.

I had originally just cut a small rectangle shape out, but we learned very quickly that 2 boys don't fit on one tiny rectangle.  If I had planned better I would have cut different Christmas shapes from it and taped them all over the kitchen floor.  Since, I didn't, I just ended up unrolling the whole thing and let them jump away.

They LOVED it.  Just put some Christmas music on and there you have a great way to burn off some busy boys' energy.  I've done this activity with plain clear bubble wrap too, and taped colors to the back side and had the kids jump on different colors, and it works best if you tape it down, as you can see in my pictures.  The bubble wrap moved all over the place.  Also, you have to buy the brand name stuff, or it just doesn't pop with little kids.  We bought the dollar store stuff one time, and were very disappointed with it.

Pop, pop, pop!!


Aric's little feet.  He liked it flipped over on the bubbly side better.

Aaron jumping all over the place

Aaron's feet in action, and yes apparently I need to clean under that corner of my refrigerator really bad.

They jumped for quite a while.

Then Aric decided to bubble wrap his brother.  Now they are just being silly!

After they got tired of jumping, I found Aaron in the kitchen just laying there popping bubbles with his finger.


After the bubble wrap fun we made some peppermint playdough, and it wasn't my plan, but the bubble wrap makes a great play mat for the play dough too.  The boys insisted on using it, so I cut another rectangle shape so they each had one.  It was a little flimsy, but stayed for the most part.

It made a great background for cute Christmas shapes.

Aric showing me his gingerbread man.

Aaron is making stars in the sky.

These boys sure love playdough!

I found the peppermint playdough recipe at Our Homeschool Fun.  I really liked this recipe, the dough was so soft, and smelled really good.

peppermint play doh

• 1 cup flour
• 1 Tblsp. vegetable oil
• 1 Tblsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• mix-ins this month—1 tsp. peppermint extract, Christmas colored glitter—1 tsp. each of red, green and gold

Mix oil, water and extract in a mixing cup or bowl—set aside.  Mix dry ingredients in small mixing bowl.  Pour all of the above into a medium sized saucepan and cook while constantly stirring over medium heat.  When play doh forms a sticky ball (will be about 3 minutes) remove from heat and knead on waxed paper until nice and smooth.  **Add glitter in this last stage of kneading.**  This recipe makes the perfect amount for all four of my kids to have a nice sized ball to create with.  I store it in a gallon sized ziploc bag and it keeps well for about a month even being used repeatedly. 

Merry Christmas!