‘Tis the Season to be Jolly! As Christmas approaches, I’m sure your classroom is coming alive with excitement! From decorating to writing letters to Santa, to giving gifts, and enjoying holiday treats – there’s a lot to look forward to. Many teachers worry that this excitement may take away from classroom learning. Near fear friend, today we’re going to talk about celebrating Christmas in the classroom with joyous activities that will have your kiddos engaged in learning all month long!
How to Balance Christmas Fun with Learning
So, what’s the deal here… is there really a way to have fun celebrating Christmas in the classroom and get some serious learning in? I certainly think so! In fact, when we bring Christmas fun into our learning activities, I find that students perk up quickly. There’s no use fighting the holiday excitement, and it’s much more fun to embrace it, so why not?!
Weaving some holiday magic into your lessons will help students enjoy the fun and make your math and literacy lessons feel a bit more exciting than usual. If you’re not sure where to start, you know I’ve got your back! Let’s talk about how to spread Christmas cheer in your room.
Start with Christmas Books
Truly, there are so many ways to celebrate Christmas in the classroom that weave in learning. One of my favorite ways involves reading a festive book. I like to read a fun Christmas picture book each morning to kick off our lessons. Thankfully, there are so many great ones to pick from! I have a whole blog post all about my favorites. I recommend hitting the local library as well to see what you can find. We always seem to find some new favorites!
The great thing about picture books is that you can choose specific ones to tie into your lessons for the day. Maybe you’re using a Gingerbread theme in your lessons – there are so many great books out there for that theme! Or perhaps you’ll be teaching your students how to write a friendly letter to Santa. Reading a book about Santa beforehand is a great way to begin the lesson. So choose some fun books and sprinkle them throughout your month for fun holiday learning!
Use a Christmas Reading Challenge to Boost Engagement
Looking for ways to get your kids excited about reading? There’s no better way to do that than with a Reading Challenge! These are way more fun than a regular reading log and feature fun prompts like:
- Read beside the Christmas tree.
- Read while listening to Christmas music.
- Read a book about snow.
These prompts will encourage students and spread some holiday cheer in the process! This resource includes pre-filled challenge pages as well as editable options. There are even some bonus writing pages and book review pages included to encourage reading comprehension. Consider sending these home over the break to keep students reading through the holidays. I like to offer a special prize to anyone who returns their completed reading challenge to me after the holiday break!
Decorate for December with Christmas Bulletin Boards
One of the best ways to begin celebrating Christmas in the classroom is to deck the halls with festive decor! I love choosing bulletin boards that require student participation of some kind.
For example, this Gingerbread Bulletin Board includes writing pages and student tags that are festive and fun! Students can write about a favorite holiday book and then you can display them on the board with the letters that read “Tis the Season to be Reading”.
This board also comes in a version with Reindeer too! Spend some time taking down fall boards and replacing them with holiday ones to instantly add some Christmas cheer to your classroom!
Christmas Classroom Activities
As I mentioned, I am a big fan of leaning into the holiday fun with Christmas learning activities. I think you’ll find that embracing the theme of Christmas will help boost engagement and keep kids focused on your lessons! Here are a few of my favorite options for Christmas learning.
Christmas Thematic Unit
If you’re looking for a one-stop shop filled with fun Christmas learning activities, my Christmas Thematic Unit is exactly what you need! If you know me, I’m sure you already know how much I love thematic learning. Choosing a theme to tie all of our learning activities to is a great way to keep students interested in your lessons month after month. If there’s one theme in particular that’s always a hit, it’s Christmas! Consider using a Christmas-themed unit in your room to boost engagement.
Inside my unit, you’ll find math centers, literacy activities, writing prompts, crafts, readers, and so much more! These hands-on learning activities were designed to keep student engagement high as you practice important primary skills. Here’s a peek at what’s included:
- Candy Cane Measuring
- Rhyming Christmas Trees Center Game
- Holiday Labeling Pages
- Christmas Tree Digraph Sorting Game
- Santa Addition and Subtraction Games
- “Oh-no, Santa is Stuck” Retelling Activity
- Holiday Q-Tip Painting
- How to make Reindeer Food Activity
- Reindeer Craft & Writing Activity and more!
This unit will simplify your holiday planning with endless activities to use throughout the month. There’s a huge variety of activities included so you’ll be covered for whole-group learning, center time, fast finishers, and more! Just plug these activities into your weekly lesson plan and save tons of time planning. Be sure to read this post next for a closer look at everything included and suggestions for how to use the activities with your students.
Color by Code Pages
I think we can all agree that the holidays are a super busy time in the classroom. Since I already know that my schedule will be packed, I like to make sure that I balance out our activities with some that require minimal prep. Now, I’m not talking about “fluff” here. Learning time, especially in December is limited. So, anything we use must target important skills! That’s why I’m a huge fan of Christmas Color by Code Pages.
With these activities, we can work on letters, numbers, number sense, and sight words in a fun and engaging way! Best of all though, they require no prep. Just print and go! All of my color by code activities are also editable. This means you can add the exact words or skills you’d like to focus on in your room. This makes differentiation by skill levels a breeze. Use these pages to fill a few extra minutes in your day, as an instant center activity, or a fast-finisher option. They’re also perfect for using to create holiday break work packets for students too!
Christmas Search and Find
Looking for something a little different to add to your center time in December? I know you will love these Christmas Search and Find Centers! These low-prep centers are so much fun for students and will help them practice letters, numbers, math facts, and CVC words. To play, each student gets a mat with a fun holiday scene. They will use a magnifying glass to find letters, numbers, or words hidden in the picture. There are multiple options for each mat too. Students can trace, color, or cover up the things they find. I love this option because we can use a different mat each week and the activity feels brand-new!
I make this center even more fun with “Detective” badges at the station. Kids love wearing the badge and using the magnifying glass to find items in the scenes! The best thing about these activities though is that they are fully editable. You can add any skill you’d like to target easily! This option makes it super simple to differentiate and customize these center activities to the needs of your students.
CVC Word BINGO
BINGO is a student favorite at any age, and this CVC Word Christmas BINGO is sure to be a hit! This resource makes it fun and easy to target CVC words in the classroom. Included, you’ll get ready-to-print BINGO cards, calling cards, and a word call list. Each card has a Christmas theme to tie into your holiday fun. There’s also editable options as well, so you can use this resource to practice sight words and other skills too!
I like to laminate a set of these and keep them in a bin ready to go with mini erasers to use as BINGO markers. Then, if we have a few minutes left at the end of our day, we’ll play a round of CVC word BINGO. The students love this and I love how easy it makes weaving in some additional word practice! This would also be a great activity for the week before Christmas break. Consider giving out special prizes to the winners to boost engagement even more!
Roll and Cover Centers
Looking for another quick and easy center activity to weave into your Christmas learning activities? Check out Roll and Cover Centers! These activities are perfect for practicing uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers 1-12. I like to print and laminate these mats, and then use them with fun Christmas mini erasers. It’s a simple center activity or morning bin option that everyone loves.
Each page also includes a funny joke that the kids love telling each other. Everyone will be giggling with these corny Christmas jokes! In addition to the full-color pages, there is also a black-and-white option for each page. These are great if you’re super low on prep time! Students can use these pages to roll and color for an instant center activity to practice numbers or letters.
Have Fun Celebrating Christmas with Your Students
Celebrating Christmas in the classroom is one of the most exciting times of the year! I hope these resources and ideas provided you with some inspiration to make the most of the holiday season in your room. My best advice is to simply embrace the holiday fun! Make time to celebrate with your students, read holiday books, and weave holiday magic into your routine. This will help you stay on track with learning and have plenty of fun along the way! Oh and don’t forget, you can find all of these resources in my TPT shop. Merry Christmas, friend!
Looking for More?
Check out these blog posts next for more Christmas learning ideas!
- Christmas Activities and Centers for Holiday Learning
- Christmas Picture Books For Kids
- Gingerbread Books for Kindergarten
- 10 Fun and Educational December Activities for Kids
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