Christmas Sensory and I Spy Ornaments

I LOVE how these turned out....but more importantly, my son LOVED the process of making them, which is saying a lot because in all honesty, he's not big on "art projects".  I have put these clear glass ornaments from Michaels in my cart on more than one occasion and I always end up taking them out....until the other day.  My son and I were reading the Christmas I Spy book and it inspired me to make these.  (We also made sensory ornaments).  LOTS OF PICS....

Things you need:

• Ornaments from Michaels (they were on sale for 99 cents)
• Decorative embellishments (also from Michaels)
• Filler - We used colored Epsom Salt, poly-fil pellets, and fake snow (amongst other things)
• Funnel

(The first step is to color the Epsom Salt.  All you do is add food coloring and mix with your hands.)

 The Invitation

 These are the decorative embellishments (from Michaels)

 Filling the first ornament with colored Epsom Salt

 Adding embellishments - for this one he added one or two of everything....except letters....true to form, he didn't TOUCH the letters at all during this activity.  LOL

 I SPY

 Moving it around and telling me "I spy....." (all of the things he sees).  He loved this!

 Another ornament - Epsom salt

 To this one he added ALL of the snowmen and snowflakes and told me it was his "snowy ornament"

 "Snowy Ornament"

 Checking it out

 Adding fake snow.  The snow didn't fall like the salt, so he used a pencil to poke it all down....quite a process and he was so focused!

 Adding bells and candy canes

 The last I SPY ornament was full of poly-fil pellets and the embellishments 

 checking out the ornament with poly-fil pellets and telling me the things he sees

I SPY ORNAMENTS

 Making sensory ornaments.  He chose cotton, dry garbanzo beans, bells, and acorns.  We had one ornament causality....the one with the bells broke while we were listening to the sounds....and that's ok.  He told me "Mommy, this one is broken" when he shook the ornament with cotton balls inside, which I thought was hilarious.  LOL  For the others he said, "its like there's music inside!"....and we talked about the sounds.

 "We need to put them downstairs for a little while."

**TIPS - Dont put anything too hard in the ornaments....they are fragile.  For those of you with curious little ones, you might want to glue on the tops.  These are too heavy for the tree...and they sell acrylic ones (mine are glass) at Michaels as well.**

- AK (MESE, MECD)