Jingle Bells Jam in a Jar

I wanted to share this activity I did with my girls  to learn the sound for J in English and Spanish, my girls had lots of fun, they learn not only the sound but also the joy of giving (which also starts with a J) So this is not my creation, is theirs. I just helped a little.

We started by talking about Jesus and His birth and how this season is about Him. The girls started this play pretend game where one of them is Mary and the other is Joseph, crazy huh?!

Then we read the book Pooh's Jingle Bells that talks about how this season is for helping and giving. So we talk about ways to help others, help around the house, give away things that we don't need, etc. We took a trip to the Food pantry and brought some food, Estrella had put some of her dolls in the bag saying that she like them but she didn't need them any more so the poor kids could have them! :) my sweetie!!! Later on the week we decided to make Jam and put it in jars to give away to people like our postman, the person who picks up the garbage, one for grandma of course and aunt Marcy.

 The words for jam and jar are Jalea and Jarro, so that worked for the same letter in Spanish.
 I had never make jam before, and looking for a recipe I found one in my Cuisinart Bread Maker Instruction Book. We decided to make Blueberry Lime Jam cause blueberries were on sale at the Jewel this week.




The girls  did almost all the process, I help them with measurements and things like that, but they poured it and mixed it together, (I mixed it more after they were done, just to make sure! ) After that we put it in the pan fitted of the bread maker and let it do its magic. The Jam was ready in 1 1/2 hours. It smelled delicious!!!









We filled out the jars, we got five of them!! more that I expected and we let them cool down.

We put the lids and Estrella wanted to decorate them, so she picked some green paper, cut some pieces that she said were rectangles and we put them around. 

She put some bells in some yarn to make jingle bells like the one in the Pooh book.

We tied our jars with the jingle bells and we were done!! 

We are now ready to give and give!!!

 But first lets have some of that jam in some fresh made bread, from the machine of course!! yum yum!!

What do you think? how do you teach your kids the joy of giving, especially during this season? Do you have an easy recipe for jam? Do you think this was a good way to teach the sound of J? I think so, Estrella really seems to have learned it. leave your comments about it. Thanks