Sunshine has thoroughly enjoyed her Santa themed practical life activities this week on the shelves.

They are such a fun way to incorporate Christmas into learning!

I specifically chose and designed these activities based on skills I've observed she's struggling with.

There's just something about changing up the environment and adding fun manipulatives that encourages kids, including Sunshine, to work on something they otherwise wouldn't.

What's even more fun is that there are a few free printables included!

Santa Practical Life Activities with Free Printables

Transferring Balls with a Spoon

Since returning home from residential, Sunshine is really struggling with table manners and eating appropriately. She tends to use her hands rather than utensils and lacks coordination when she does choose to use utensils.

In this activity she will practice transferring foam balls from one bowl to the other using the spoon without spilling them.

To my surprise, Sunshine really struggled with this activity. She was more concerned with speed than accuracy and then became frustrated when the balls would spill into the basket.

Eventually she did slow down and was able to complete the activity. She felt quite proud of herself when it was done.

Pouring Liquid from Pitcher to Glasses

Originally I thought about putting milk and cookies on this tray instead of red water, but I was worried about mess and frustration, so I went with water.

Sunshine practiced pouring water into the two glasses from the pitcher and serving it to us. Her main concern was using all of the water, and so she filled the cups up too far to move without spilling.

Next time I'll remember to put less water in the pitcher, until she shows that she's able to observe when a cup is too full.

Transfer with Tweezers

The object of this activity was to use the tweezers to transfer the foam table scatter from one glass bowl to the other.

Like with other activities, Sunshine struggled with this. She became easily frustrated trying to pick up individual trees and stockings.

Eventually she learned that if she stabbed them with the tweezers she could pick up multiple things at one time and it was easier.

Next time I'll choose tweezers that are more blunt at the ends and a different object to transfer. So much of her frustration comes from wanting to do things as fast as possible. We'll definitely work on slowing down a bit.

Santa Cutting Strips

I was so excited for Sunshine to do this activity as I remembered how much she loves to cut. But, there are no scissors in residential settings, and therefore she has not cut anything in three years.

Sunshine was quite upset that her skills had regressed and wanted to cut perfectly, which wasn't happening.

Surprisingly she enjoyed the activity enough to do it a second time. She decided to try straight lines instead of curved lines which went a tiny bit better.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Santa Cutting Strips are a Subscriber's Only Freebie, for your copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Sharpening Santa Pencils

Sunshine loves having special pencils to do her work. When I saw a pack of Christmas pencils at our local dollar store, I couldn't resist.

She's enjoyed coloring a lot lately with colored pencils at home but struggles to sharpen them by herself. I thought it might be a great idea to practice this skill.

Despite how long it took, and how many different hand positions Sunshine used to try to sharpen the pencil with the sharpener, she succeeded and was very excited.

I absolutely love this pencil sharpener. After trying many over the years, this one works best and is so easy for kids to use.

Santa's Buckles Dressing Frame

I convinced Sunshine that Santa has to have a lot of practice with buckles in order to put his belt and boots on. If Santa can do buckles, then she can too.

Sunshine enjoyed this activity. Her only frustration was at the beginning when I presented the lesson to her and she wanted to dig in and do it right away.

It was nice to see her so excited to complete a task.

I absolutely love our dressing frame, as it's so sturdy and strong and allows for lots of practice.

Christmas Living vs. Nonliving Sorting Cards

Since returning from residential Sunshine has really struggled with the difference between reality versus fantasy, but also living versus nonliving things.

My husband created this printable for her to help. Please note it does not include any pretend characters.

Sunshine will sort cards into two categories: living and nonliving.

She hasn't done this activity yet, as we've all come down with the flu. I'm super excited for her to do so when she gets better, as I'm sure she'll love some of the living sorting cards.

Source: The Christmas Living vs. Nonliving Sorting Cards are a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For you copy, follow the directions at the bottom of the post.

Practical life skills are so important to develop. Holidays, especially Christmas can provide such a great opportunity to work on things.

We hope you enjoy these practical life activities as much as we do!

Don't forget your free printables!

Directions on How to Obtain Subscriber Only Freebies

1. Click on the Subscriber's link at the bottom of this post.

2. Subscribe to our free newsletter.

3. Open the thank you message you receive in your e-mail, after subscribing. (Be sure to check your spam folder, as sometimes it ends up there.)

4. Click the confirmation link in the thank you message.

5. Once the confirmation is complete, you will receive another e-mail message with the Subscriber Only Freebies.

6. Click on the link.

7. Select the Minimalism, Montessori, or Mental Health Printables Library.

8. Find the printable pack you are looking for listed in alphabetical order, click on it, and voila!

We hope you enjoy your free printable.

Note: If you are already a newsletter subscriber, open your most recent newsletter. At the bottom you will find a link to the Free Printables Library.

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