In my post on Ornaments to Make With a Preschooler, I mentioned that these pom pom ornaments were my favorite.
They still are my favorite.
They were a lot more expensive than I expected - $8 for a bag of sparkly pom poms and $4 for a bag of red jingle bells - but the effect is pretty cool.
Jingly Pom Pom Christmas Ornaments
Materials
- 4-inch styrofoam ball
- A large bag of sparkly pom poms
- Jingle bells
- Ribbon
- Straight pins
- Super thick tacky glue
Instructions
- Grace wanted to use every single jingle bell, so we glued them on first. We started by putting glue on the jingle bells then pressing them into the styrofoam.
- We waited overnight for the glue to dry. Otherwise, the bells were falling off as we did the next step.
- Next, we put straight pins in the pom poms as the original tutorial suggests. The pins were a bit too short, and they didn't grip the styrofoam as well as I wanted, so I put glue on the pom poms, too. The pins held the pom poms well enough for the glue to dry and set.
- Once the ball was entirely covered, I cut a length of ribbon and pinned and glued it to the biggest empty spot on the ball.
- Done!
A note about crafting with a preschooler
Obviously, Grace's sparkly ball does not look much like the original.
I wanted the ornament to have all the same sized pom poms on it, interspersed with jingle bells. It would have been so pretty.
But it was not Grace's vision of the ornament.
Grace wanted to use tiny pom poms and huge pom poms and the middle-sized ones, too.
She worked on this project longer and more earnestly than any other project she's done. She's proud of her ornament.
Unfortunately, a 4-inch ball covered with jingle bells and pom poms is too big and heavy for Grace's little Christmas tree, so my mom encouraged her to put it on her door knob. She did, and she jingles it every time she walks by.
Tara @ Feels Like Home says
I got annoyed by that, too. She came home from preschool with all sorts of projects like that, and I always wondered what SHE would have done if given a chance.
autism mommy of two says
I love both idea's your's and grace's ornaments.I started a sensory friendly sunday school class that was inspired by our son who happens to have autism and unlike his sister who also has autism he cannot handle the high energy,loud noise and their classroom is small which i think is the biggest culprit for him not fitting in there.So we decided to see that our son was given a equal chance to be spiritually fed and that it is an enjoyable experience.He has a very curious mind,he loves to learn,do experiments,craft projects see how things work.We have another younger boy with sensory issues we are hoping he might like the alternative and we finally have a boy with adhd ,I have a teen helper and she enjoys doing the sensory crafts as well as the boys and I check out blogs like yours to find idea's to try with the kids to tie in with the lesson ,something cool that will keep their attention and make them excited to come back because they know were going to do something cool.We have a big open room,a large table to do our projects and access to water from the washroom near by and a kitchen not far from the space so it's awesome that we can do fun experiments and projects and make church cool.Please Tara email me If you have any that you think would be fitting for my class for any time of the year. but since Christmas is approaching a couple of those might be great to ty in advance.