Spell Out Loud

Nothing about spelling, everything about learning

  • Contact
  • About
  • Home
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Homeschool
    • 2012-2013 Homeschool Curriculum Plans
    • 2011-2012 Curriculum
    • Reviews
  • Tots-K
    • ABC Themes
    • Birthday Theme
    • Christmas
    • Early Math
    • Ice Cream Theme
    • Nursery Rhymes
    • Preschool Butterfly Unit
  • Printables
    • ABC Printables
    • Anatomy
    • Bible Printables
    • Christmas
    • Early Learning
    • Misc. Printables
    • Notebooking
    • Preschool Butterfly Unit
  • Preschool Science
    • Preschool Science Archive
  • Nature eBooks
    • Nature Study Printables 2
    • Nature Study Printables for Toddlers and Preschoolers
    • Hummingbird Nature Study
  • Christmas
    • Christmas Books and Activities
    • Holidays
  • How-To’s
  • MOSTLiving
    • Calendar of Events
    • Natural Living articles
    • Chemically-Free
You are here: Home / Bible activities / Song of the Stars Christmas Book

Song of the Stars Christmas Book

November 30, 2011 by Maureen Spell 10 Comments

The first book starting off our Christmas book reading is Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones. I purposely picked this book to be our first book of the season, which we will read on Dec. 1st.

Summary: All of creation is filled with anticipation of the coming newborn king. The woodland creatures stirred, the mightly lion roared, the great white whales sang, “It’s time!” A beautifully written and illustrated Christmas book that young children and adults will enjoy.


This is one of my new favorite Christmas books. Sally Lloyd-Jones was able to weave a new perspective of the Christmas story from creation’s point-of-view. The story paired with the beautiful crackled-art paintings by Alison Jay is sure to become a family favorite.

“On a lonely peak a lion raised his strong head and roared it out to the empty wilderness… “The Mighty King! The Prince of Peace!”

This is why I chose this book to be our first Christmas book reading— it weaves in some of the different names of Jesus. I had already decided that we were going to do a mini-study on the Names of Jesus during this Christmas season, so this book seemed the perfect way to start off our Names of Jesus advent chain.

Click to Download the Names of Jesus Advent Chain

Now the most important part of a Christmas Book tradition is reading them. Sounds simple right? Sometimes I put too much pressure on myself to do other activities to go along with the book and when they don’t get done, I’m disappointed. So this year I’m giving myself grace to not do activities but to concentrate on creating some good reading memories with my children.

Some of the books though, as soon as I read them an idea pops into my head. That was the case with this book. So here’s an extra activity that you could do that goes along with this book.

Crackled Star Ornament

Supplies:
2 different shades of yellow acrylic paint
Crackle paint medium (found in the same aisle as the acrylic paint)
cardstock or wooden stars
Star template if printing on cardstock
pipe cleaner or ribbon
marker

The illustrations in the book have a beautiful crackle finish on them. I knew I had the supplies on hand to recreate that effect at home. I thought my children would find it interesting how the paint “cracks” and the color shows through. Be aware, this project should be done in stages to allow for drying — aka this is not a fast project! It is easy though. 🙂

First I printed out the star template onto cardstock. Then I painted with a darker yellow using a sponge brush. Let this dry completely. After it is dry, paint a coat of crackle medium over the stars using a foam brush. Let this dry completely. If doing this with young kids maybe do one step in the morning, one step in the afternoon, and then one step in the evening.

One the crackle medium is completely dry, you can paint on the top coat. I chose a lighter yellow. Paint that over the star. This is the fun part. While it is drying, you can see the paint starting to “crack” apart. The base coat then shows through! Once this is dry go ahead and cut out the stars. (You can also do this whole process with those wooden stars found at craft stores.)

I turned one of the stars into an ornament for our tree.

And another into a story stick for when we read the story again.

Be sure to check out all my Christmas books and activities page for even more ideas!

 


Please stop by and visiting my other 5 Days of Christmas friends!

A Slob Comes Clean – Getting Your Home Company Ready
Feels Like Home – Christmas Traditions
Somewhat Crunchy – Christmas with Dairy Allergies
Spell Outloud – Children’s Books
Mama’s Learning Corner – Children’s Crafts
Many Little Blessings – Edible Gifts
Sunflower Schoolhouse – Decorations
An Oregon Cottage – Christmas Cookies
Catholic Icing – Wishing Jesus Happy Birthday
The Traveling Praters – Traveling
The Homeschool Classroom – Gifts Kids Can Make
Mama’s Laundry Talk – Laundry Gifts

Sharing is caring!

2 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Filed Under: Bible activities, Christmas, holidays, How To's Tagged With: Christmas

Christmas Book Book
Humphrey’s First Christmas

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    November 30, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    We're doing this books too – LOVE your craft idea….think we'll be trying it 🙂
    Michelle (Musings Of Me)

    Reply
  2. cookmomster says

    November 30, 2011 at 1:00 pm

    Just read that book yesterday for the first time, and loved it! I love your star ornament, but I may cut myself some grace, and do it next year. Haha. I think we read 4 Christmas books this morning for Bible time.
    Faith.

    Reply
  3. Mozer says

    November 30, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    Yes! No pressure! 🙂 Keep it fun and not stressful is my motto for this year.

    Reply
  4. Ticia says

    November 30, 2011 at 9:33 pm

    I need to get this book. Just as I was going, "Okay, I have enough" you pull me back in……..

    Reply
  5. Honey @ sunflower Schoolhouse says

    December 1, 2011 at 6:29 am

    I love the idea of the names of Christ advent chain. I have downloaded it and plan to use it.

    Reply
  6. Taraleigh says

    December 1, 2011 at 10:01 am

    I love this!! What a great idea. I love this book and have read it quite a few times since we received it!

    Reply
  7. Jonathan says

    December 1, 2011 at 10:07 am

    Taraleigh, thanks for posting about The Song of the Stars, and for the great craft idea! We're going to share this blog post on our Zonderkidz Facebook page.
    You also may be interested to know that until December 5th, we're running a Blogging Contest for Song of the Stars, and this post would be eligible! If you wanted to enter, you would just have to go to songofthestars.zondervan.com and click on the contest button to learn more.
    Thanks again for the great post!
    Jonathan
    -The Zonderkidz team

    Reply
  8. rushingtoread says

    December 4, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    Just linked to this post with the neat craft idea from my blog review about another Sally Lloyd-Jones book for Christmas! (I hate coming up with my own craft ideas, but I'm always happy to find good ones and share them!)

    http://rushingtoread.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/my-merry-christmas-and-the-real-reason-for-christmas-joy-by-sally-lloyd-jones-illustrated-by-linda-clearwater/

    Reply
  9. TyKes Mom says

    December 4, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    These are adorable! I am always looking for new crafts to do with my children and I think they would love this one. I would love it if you would link up to my Frugal Christmas Week so my readers can check this out as well! Thanks!

    Reply
  10. lisawith4 says

    December 5, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    Sounds like a sweet little book! Love the craft that you came up with to go along with the story.
    (I found you on An Oregon Cottage link up.)
    Merry Christmas!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Nature Study Bundle

$5.00

Add to Cart
Get all 3 nature study resources! Combined there are over 100+ nature printables and resources!
American History I Drew It Then I Knew It Video Art Lessons
Morning Time Subscription Tall Sidebar

Search

Key Words & Past Topics

Archives

Welcome to Spell Outloud! I love to share about educational activities, homeschool encouragement, nature studies and more. Find out more here!

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Sign up for our free newsletter!

Dysgraphia

Recent Posts

  • Mama You Need to Fuel Yourself
  • Large Family Math Solutions
  • Chocolate Chia Pudding Parfaits
  • 11th Grade Homeschool Curriculum 2018-2019
  • 5 Reasons Teaching Textbooks is Awesome for Large Families

Copyright Spell Outloud © 2023 All Rights Reserved | Site design by Archer Creative