Back to my heritage. Another project that I remember very fondly from my childhood was making an Orange Sun. It always made the classroom smell so nicely – orange and cloves just meant that Christmas was coming.

I decided to try to do a similar project with my classroom this year. I simplified it a little bit so that it was a fine motor challenge but with not too much frustration for the threes. 

I gave everybody wrapping papers, ribbons, aluminum foil and this awesome candy cane pasta from Trader Joe’s that I found. I asked the kids to use a skewer like a big needle and poke a hole through whatever they wanted to put on it (besides the pasta, that was not necessary – some kids still tried, though).

Every time somebody said done, I came over with the orange and let them stick their creation into it. They loved that part. And we kept going and going until our sun was all done and ready to be hung up in our classroom. Now let’s see how long it lasts. It was a week and it is still good (fingers crossed for another week).