Christmas is one of the kids favourite holidays of the year, and there is so much you can do with it in the classroom to teach the joy of sharing. These Christmas Activities will keep the children engaged while having tons of fun.
Christmas Themed Activities
Creative Space
Play dough, stamps, scissors, lacing beads and cards, puzzles and blocks are set out for the children to choose from, and get creative during this 30 minute period.
Christmas Themed Circle Time
Everyday during Circle Time we do the morning routine, which includes the Calendar and ‘Number, Color, Shape and Letter of the week’. We then read a story, sing a few songs and do a group activity.
On every Monday we change the ‘Classroom Helpers’ Classroom Jobs. Each child has a name card on a popsicle stick, and they get to choose their job of the week.
Christmas Themed Circle Time Activities
Activity 1: Weekend News
Every Monday morning each child gets a chance to talk about their weekend and what they did. The children then draw a picture in the ‘weekend news’ journal, and the teacher writes down what they have said.
Activity 2: Movement Cards
Download the free movement cards from: https://toddlerapproved.com/2013/12/christmas-music-workout-with-kids.html, print, laminate and march along with the elves!
Activity 3: What’s in the present?
I downloaded this free printable from Prekinders.com a few years ago and it has been a hit every year.
Wrap various objects (a fork, a soft toy, a bell, a pair of scissors, a paintbrush, a pencil, a glue stick, a block and a paintbrush) in wrapping paper before hand. During circle time, send each ‘present’ around the circle and ask the children to guess what’s inside. Open after everyone had a turn to see who guessed right.
Activity 4: Bow Pick-up Race
Children take turns to grab handfuls of bows and throw them up in the air. Then time them to see how fast they can pick up all the bows and put them back in the bucket. You could also choose a color and have them pick up only the bows of that color.
Activity 5: Bow Hunt
Hide lots of bows around the classroom and set a certain amount of time to see how many bows the children can find.
Christmas Themed Songs
Sixteen action songs and rhymes all about Christmas to get those bodies moving and grooving. Click on the image to head over to the post.
This was our favourite song in class.
Christmas Themed Books
Eighteen of the best story picture books that are perfect for a Christmas theme. Click on the image below to read what these books are about.
Christmas Themed Literacy Activities
Center 1: Bingo
Center 2: Christmas Lights CVC
Cut out and laminate the pictures of the Christmas lights. Attach a string on the picture of the fireplace and glue on 3 small clothes pegs. Laminate the CVC word recording sheets. Children look at the beginning sound of each picture, ‘hang up’ the Christmas lights above the fireplace, then record the CVC word in the space provided.
Center 3: Roll & Cover
Cut out the cube and assemble into a dice. Laminate the 4 ‘game’ sheets. Children take turns throwing the dice and covering the pictures on their game sheet. The first one that has covered all is the winner.
Activity 1: Dream Snow
Read the book or watch the read aloud here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SodXkTEtal4. Write numbers 1 – 5 on the whiteboard and ask the children to see if they can remember what each animal’s name is. Write the animal words next to the numbers.
Hand out the cut-and-paste activity sheets (which you will find in the free lesson plan). Children color the animals, then cut out the words and paste it under the correct animal. When they are done, they write the right numeral underneath each number word.
Activity 2: Secret Santa
Send a letter home to the parents a week before this activity. Ask them to ask their child which toy that they already own would they like to give away. Ask them to wrap this and send it to school.
On the day of this activity, write a number on each present and write these numbers on a small piece of paper too. Place the pieces of paper in a bag and ask the children to come to the front and pick a number. They then get to open that gift. Allow for a swap and change afterwards.
Christmas Themed Math Activities
Center 1: Candy Cane Measuring
Children use the pictures of the presents to measure each candy cane and record their findings on the pictograph.
Center 2: Roll-a-Reindeer
This printable is actually in color, but I ran out of colored ink at the time, so had to settle for black and white. The children still loved the grey reindeers though, so all good 🙂
Center 3: Roll & Add
Laminate the Roll & Add sheets, Children throw a dice, use play dough or pom-poms to make the same number of ornaments on the tree, and record the number, Throw the dice again, make the same number of ornaments and record the number, Count all the ornaments made and record the answer.
Activity: Match the Numbers Cut-and-Paste
Hand out the activity sheets (which you will find in the free lesson plan). Children cut out all the numbers, count all the pictures and match the amount to each number by pasting the number on top of it.
Christmas Themed Art: Curly Bearded Santa
I got this idea over at www.artycraftykids.com. The paper curling was a little hard for some of the younger children, but a few of them did really good.
What you need:
- Paper plates (one per child)
- Red Paint
- Paint Brushes
- Red Construction paper (for the noses)
- Cotton Wool
- 1 inch wide strips of white paper.
Time for the activity:
Children paint Santa’s hat on the top half of the paper plate, and wait for it to dry. While they wait, they curl the strips of white paper, by curling it around a pencil. When the paper plates are dry, the children can glue the cotton wool onto Santa’s ‘hat’, as well as glue the noses on. They can now glue the strips of white paper on as the beard, and use a black marker to draw Santa’s eyes.
Christmas Themed Science
Sadly we did not have enough time to try this Science activity this week, but I still feel like I need to share it. I found the activity over at littlebinsforlittlehands.com. Head over to their blog for full instructions, by clicking on the image.
Christmas Themed STEM
We tried this activity in class, and it was amazing! The children were totally immersed, and every time the tower fell, they were in fits of laughter. I forgot to take pictures, but click on the image below to head over to littlebinsforlittlehands.com (where I found the idea), for full instructions.
Christmas Themed Snack Idea
Sadly, it is not strawberry season where I live (in Taiwan) at the moment, so we could not make these adorable little snowmen skewers. I found the idea at womansday.com. Once again, click on the image to head over to their blog for the full recipe.
Phonics
Phonics is taught in order from A – Z and we spend the first semester on learning all the letter sounds. The second semester is spent on Word Families and Sight Words. We learn 2 letter sounds a week through songs, crafts, centers, cut-and-paste activities, tracing & coloring. This week we will learn about the letters Uu & Vv
.
Monday: Letter Introduction
Every Monday, the teacher introduces the letters of the week. We watch the Jolly Phonics Letters U & V songs and do the actions, then listen to the Bounce Patrol letters U & V songs. Afterwards, we play the letters Uu & Vv games on Starfall.
The teacher then shows the children the word cards and ask them to name the pictures and to place it under the correct letter on the word wall.
Tuesday & Thursday: Letter Crafts
Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for Letter Crafts. The children all love these. For this week we did the ‘U is for Umbrella’ and ‘V is for Vase’ Letter Crafts.
Wednesday: Tracing Letters and Beginning Sounds Centers
Friday: Beginning Sounds Sorting and Cut-and-Paste
Click on the images below to download the Christmas Themed Math & Literacy Centers, Printables and Activities.
