Christmas

I’m often torn about how much or little I want to focus on Christmas in the classroom. Some years I want to wait and only do Christmas activities in the last week before the holiday. This year I started early; it seemed like a good year to get festive early.

The Tree

I love having a student decorated tree in the classroom. Some years, the kids kept decorating it daily, but this year they put on their first ornaments and decided that it was perfect. We used a basic ornament shape template that I found years ago, crayons, and a ton of glitter to make the ornaments. They turned out nice.

Loose Parts

Over the years, I’ve had some bad experiences with loose parts in the class. This year, I’ve used them mostly in playdough trays and for counting collections, but I thought Christmas would be the perfect time to try them again. It turned out great. The students had a lot of fun, and they were terrific at creating and then tidying up. The snowman and bell shapes are cut-outs from thin plywood that I purchased from a local dollar store. I’m now on the lookout for more that I can use during the year. If I can’t find any, I’ll see if I could cut some out myself or make them out of felt

Playdough Tray

I planned the playdough tray to encourage tree making. While the students did make some impressive trees, I only got a picture of this one ornament. I will definitely be doing this same tray again next year – it was a big hit.

Directed Drawing

I like doing directed drawing lessons and watching my students grow over the year. We did have fun doing a Santa Claus and printing Santa. It’s hard work remembering only to use a capital at the beginning.

Wooden Ornaments

Our gift for families this year were wooden ornaments. They make these gingerbread cookies and Christmas trees. My big mistake was using water-soluble markers instead of permanent ones, making it impossible for me to put a top coat of varnish on them. Regardless, they are cute, and I hope the families like them.

Christmas ABC Games & Activities

I put together a pack of games to use at Christmas and posted it in my TpT store. My favorite is the Santa Roll game; I printed mine out with the letters we are currently learning. This is a holiday version of an old favorite of mine, and I’m glad that I created this Santa one. I’m planning on making them for all the seasons that I celebrate in the class.

My students play various card games and really like this one with the Christmas themed clipart. My students love playing games, and these are so easy for them to play.

All of my students are experts at the letter sounds I’ve introduced so far, and I’m quite sure I have games like this to thank. I teach each letter explicitly and practice it, but games reinforce the learning and provide a fun review