Jingle Bells Counting Ornaments

Christmas decorating with a preschooler this December led to these fun Jingle Bells Counting Ornaments. This activity combined the exceptionally fun of ringing jingle bells with counting and fine motor practice as well. My toddler and preschooler loved it!

My children have their own mini Christmas tree in their room. It doubles as their nightlight, and they look forward to decorating it each year. One of their favorite ornaments from our family tree are structured jingle bells ornaments I purchased from Michaels a few years back. The two younger kids in particular are constantly hauling them around the house, jingling them, and occasionally removing the little bells.

This year I wanted to let them make their own jingle bell Christmas ornaments, and we decided to turn it into a counting activity as well.

I started with these adorable blue and silver bells that came in a package from Hobby Lobby. The only other supply we needed was sparkly silver pipe cleaners. I did use some white stickers to attach a number to the tops of the pipe cleaners, but those are optional.

For the counting part of the activity, I wrote a number on my white stickers and stuck them to the top of each pipe cleaner. Then, I had my preschooler count out that number of little bells and slide them onto the center of the pipe cleaner. The hook at the top of each bell is narrow, so it took some focus to get them on. He loved it, and it was a perfect fine motor activity.

Once my toddler and preschooler had counted and sorted the bells onto the pipe cleaners, we removed the sticker and bent the pipe cleaner into the shape of a bell. The two ends met at the top where we twisted to close off the ornament.

The kids had a great time making the ornaments, and when we were done, they ran around the house jingling them as loud as they could. The simple joys of childhood, right?! 🙂

A great way to keep the fun going throughout the month is to decorate a mini tree with these jingle bells counting ornaments. Each day you can move the ornaments around and have the children search for a certain ornament. For example, I could ask my son to find the ornament with 6 bells. He would have to count the bells of each ornament until he found the correct one.

I hope you enjoyed this fun Christmas themed counting activity and craft.

Thanks for visiting, and check out some of our other fun activities before you go.

Happy December!