When there’s something exciting going on in your students’ lives, like Christmas, Halloween, or an upcoming summer break, we think it’s a good idea to incorporate that into your classroom. They’re going to be buzzing with excitement and wanting to talk about it, so if you include it in a lesson or some planned activity time, it gives them an outlet for that! So here are a few ways you can bring Christmas into your classroom with some activities…
#1 Sing in a round
There are lots of lovely Christmas carols and songs that we hear around this time of year, and many children will know a lot of them already. So have a Christmas-themed music lesson and try singing a simple song in a round! This involves splitting your class into two groups, and having one of them start singing first. Then, after the first line (or a little longer, depending on what sounds good!), the second group starts singing a little later. You could try it with Away in a Manger, Silent Night, or Jingle Bells. If the students have never done this before, you could find a video online of singing in a round to show them what they’re going for. It may take a little practice, but it’s a great way to teach about timing in music as you encourage them to sing at the right time, as well as a nice way for the children to work together to make the song sound good.
#2 Write a ‘Things I’m grateful for’ letter
This is a nice activity to do at a time when lots of children will be thinking about all their new presents. Plus, it’s a good one if you have a lot of students who don’t celebrate Christmas, as it’s more focused on the end of the year in general. You can introduce it differently depending on whether you’re theming it as a ‘Christmas’ activity or not. Start a discussion with your students about all the different things that have happened this year – maybe they had a holiday, or a party for their birthday, or made some new friends. Ask the students to share some things that have made them happy this year; you could do this as a group in a circle, in small groups, or with partners. Encourage them to share experiences and activities as well as physical things like toys or gadgets. They can then write a letter explaining all of the things they’ve been grateful for this year. Depending on the age of the children, you could add another layer to the activity by asking them to write it to themselves LAST Christmas! A letter from the future, telling them about all the great things that are going to happen this year. If your students aren’t quite up to that, you could have them design and decorate their writing paper before penning their letter.
#3 Make a kindness advent calendar
This is another nice non-materialistic spin on a Christmas activity. You could stat a discussion on why Christmas is a ‘giving’ time of year – what does that mean, and who can we give to? What about charities? Or giving kindness and good thoughts? Have the children write down all their different ideas on how to be kind, then collect them all in and create a kindness advent calendar that'll be a surprise for them. How this looks will depend on how crafty you are, and how much time you have! You could make a physical calendar with little doors or a pocket for each day, or you could make some PowerPoint slides, with a different one for each day. Then every day of the season, reveal that day’s idea! It could be things like give a friend a compliment, find a book or toy to donate to charity, donate a tin to a food bank, make a list of gifts you’d like to give your family members, or offer to give someone a hand. Your students can try to do all of these things during the season, and see how many they can manage!
#4 Christmas games
A simple one, but one your students will be excited for – make your classroom games Christmas-themed! You could play charades or Pictionary with Christmas or winter-themed prompts. You could also do a ‘guess the word’ type of game (not hangman!) with Christmas words. You can turn ‘Simon says’ into ‘Santa says’, or you could turn Heads Down, Thumbs Up into…okay, that one is hard to make Christmassy. What about Heads Down, Antlers Up – where the children point their index fingers at the side of their heads like antlers!
#5 ‘My ideal Christmas…’ writing activity
If you’re working on your writing skills, then it’s always great to have a Christmas-themed activity to encourage the students to write. Lots of students will write longer pieces if they’ve really engaged with the prompt! Start a discussion with the students about their ideal Christmas. They could share what they really do at home, or they could share something they’ve never done but would love to do. They can go wild with their ideas – like waking up on Christmas morning and finding a bouncy castle in their garden! Or you can keep them more grounded, and focus on things like foods they’d eat and games they’d play. Ask the children to write down their ideal Christmas. If you’re working on something in particular with their writing skills, you can incorporate that – like including adjectives or compound sentences. Then when they’re finished, the children can take turns reading out their ideal day to the rest of the class!
