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 Here
are some ideas for making the holidays special for your students.
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Click on
the thumbnail above to see our class holiday card.
I take
this picture every year and make it into a holiday card to
give to our classroom volunteers and administrators. |
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your kids will LOVE this
one! |
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Pretend & Play
Teaching Telephone
This telephone is a sure hit
for the holidays when placed in your dramatic play center.
The Pretend & Play Teaching Telephone allows you to record your
own voice to create messages. You can also program
telephone numbers. During the holidays I created a phone
number and message for calling Santa! My kids ADORE
calling Santa in the dramatic play center and telling him what
they want for Christmas. It's great for oral language
development, teaching number recognition, and phone numbers all
at the same time. Here is the message I created: "Ho
Ho Ho! Merry Christmas! I hope you've been good this year!
Can you tell me what you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?" |
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Literacy Activities
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Activity |
Instructions |
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Holiday Phonological Awareness:
Beginning Sounds
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Setting: Small Group, Literacy Centers
Objective:
Phonological Awareness- Beginning Sounds
Materials: Several
small gift bags- each one labeled with a different letter, small
objects/realia that start with the letters on each bag. (I
recommend the items from the Lakeshore Letter Sound Tubs for this
activity)
Instructions:
Students will place objects inside each bag that start with the
letter sound indicated on the bags. |
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Ho! Ho! Ho!
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Setting: Large or
Small Group, Literacy Centers
Objective: Letter
Identification
Materials:
27 cards OR cardstock cut into cards, Santa stickers OR Santa
notepad (Post-It Super Sticky Notes makes a Santa notepad), holiday container, holiday music, Sharpie
Instructions: This
game is played just like "Hot Potato" if you are familiar with
that game. Program each card with a Santa sticker on one
side. On the other side of the cards write one letter on
each card, you can choose upper or lowercase depending on the
levels of your students. Write the word "Ho! Ho! Ho!" on
one card and place all cards in the container. When you
play the holiday music the children pass the container around
the circle. The container pictured at left is from the
Dollar Tree. When the music stops the person who is
holding the container gets to take out a card and identify the
letter. If a student pulls out the "Ho! Ho! Ho!" card all
the children get to say "Ho! Ho! Ho!" loudly. The student who chose the "Ho! Ho! Ho!
card must return all of his or her cards to the container. Keep
playing until all children have had a turn or until they tire of
the game. |
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Holiday Phonological Awareness:
Identifying Syllables
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Setting: Small Group, Literacy Centers
Objective:
Phonological Awareness- Syllable Identification
Materials: Holiday
pictures (click on printables at left),
cardstock, laminating film, magnetic tape, scissors, cookie sheet,
round magnets.
Instructions: Print
holiday pictures on cardstock and laminate. Next, cut the
pictures out and place a small piece of magnetic tape on the
back of each card. Give each child in your small group a
cookie sheet. Students will place a card on the cookie
sheet and place the correct number of colored magnets underneath
each picture to indicate how many syllables. For example;
if a child places a picture of a stocking on his cookie sheet he
would place two magnetic dots underneath the picture to indicate
that the word "stocking" has two syllables. |
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Holiday Fonts
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Setting: Small Group, Literacy Centers
Objective: Letter
Identification
Materials: 26 sheets
from Christmas Tree notepad, letters in many different fonts, glue
sticks, scissors, stapler or tape
Instructions:
Write a different
letter in the middle of each tree with your Sharpie.
Print out the letters in many different fonts and cut apart with
scissors. Place all the letters in a container in the
middle of the table so they are easily accessible for all
students. Staple or tape the trees to the wall and allow students to use their
glue sticks to glue the letters of various fonts to the correct
trees. |
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Math Activities
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Activity |
Instructions |
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Holiday 1:1
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: 1:1 correspondence, number sense
Materials: one ice
cube tray per student, foam die, Holiday erasers (see resources
section)
Directions:
Give each student in the small group an ice cube tray.
Place the holiday erasers in the center
of the table in a bowl or other container so they are easily
accessible to all students. Each student takes a turn
rolling the die and putting the corresponding number of
holiday erasers in their ice cube tray.
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Rudolph 1:1 |
Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: 1:1 correspondence, number sense
Materials: red
pom-pom's, rudolph 1:1 mats (available in printables section
below), foam die
Directions:
Give each student in the small group a Rudolph 1:1 mat.
Place the red pom-pom's in the center
of the table in a bowl or other container so they are easily
accessible to all students. Each student takes a turn
rolling the die and putting the corresponding number of
red pom-pom's on their mat.
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Holiday Sorting
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: Sorting
Materials: Holiday
erasers
(see resources section)
Directions:
Have students sort the erasers into groups.
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Big & Small
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: Sizes
Materials: two
stockings- one big and one small, objects of different sizes
Directions:
Have students place objects of different sizes into the correct
stockings.
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Holiday Board Game
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: 1:1, number sense
Materials: cardstock,
holiday stickers or clipart, round sticker dots, playing pieces (plastic
finger puppets make great playing pieces- see resources section
below), tape, foam die.
Directions: Take two pieces of white cardstock
and tape them together in the middle to create your game board.
Be careful to leave a small gap between the two pieces so the
game board will fold easily for storage. Take thematic
stickers and place them around the board for decoration.
The board featured here depicts Santa flying to the North Pole. Affix
the round sticky dots to the game board and laminate. Give
each player a playing piece. Players take turns rolling
the die and moving their playing piece toward the North Pole.
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Rudolph 1-6 Roll and Stamp
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: number sense, number recognition
Materials: Rudolph
stamping sheet (available in printables section below), red
Do-A-Dot markers, foam die (see resources section)
Directions:
Give each student in the small group a 1-6 stamping sheet.
Have students take turns rolling the die. The students
will identify the correct number of dots on the die and stamp
the corresponding number on their sheet with a holiday stamp.
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Counting Cups
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: 1:1, Number Sense
Materials: Holiday cups, holiday erasers
(see resources section),
number stickers
Directions:
Place a number sticker on the front of each cup. Have
students place the correct number of holiday erasers into the
cups. |
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Holiday 1-5 Counting Grid
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: 1:1, Number Sense
Materials:
1-5 counting grid, holiday
erasers
(see resources section)
Directions:
Give each student a 1-5 counting grid. Place the
holiday erasers in the center of the table in a bowl or
other container so they are easily accessible to all students.
Have students place the appropriate number of erasers in
the grid next to each
number. You could also use holiday stamps for this
activity. This is much more difficult than it looks!
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Holiday Patterning
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: patterning
*If
you use stickers this becomes a crossover activity because
peeling the backs off stickers promotes fine motor development.
Materials:
pattern
strips, holiday foam stickers (from Dollar Tree) or holiday
erasers
Directions: Give
each student in your small group a pattern strip. Place
the foam stickers or erasers in the center of the table in a
bowl or other container so they are easily accessible to all
students. Students will make a pattern on their strip
using the foam stickers or erasers.
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Please, Santa
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: Number identification, number sense
Materials: holiday ads from newspaper,
scissors, glue sticks, Sharpie, stocking copied on red paper
Directions: Using a Sharpie write a number on
the front of a blackline master stocking. Choose the
number according to your curriculum. Photocopy the
master on red paper. Give each student in your small group
a red stocking to cut out. Next, have students cut out
pictures from the holiday ads and glue the correct number of
items to the front of their stockings. |
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Small, Medium, and Large Bows
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Setting: Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: Sizes
Materials: holiday bows in 3 different
sizes, glue sticks, paper.
Directions: Have students glue the bows in order
from smallest to largest. |
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Pass the Present
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Setting: Large or Small Group, Math Centers
Objective: Number Sense, Identifying sets of objects
Materials: one small holiday box, small
items that will easily fit inside the box, choose the number of
items you want your students to learn to identify in a set
Directions: Put small objects inside a small
holiday box. Have students sit in a circle on the floor.
The first student shakes the box and dumps the contents out on
the floor in front of him. The student orally identifies the
set of items with one number, for example, "There are 4 things
in my present". The student passes the box to the person
sitting next to him and the next person repeats the process
until everybody in the circle has had a turn. This game
will help your students learn to quickly identify sets of
objects. |
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Art Activities |
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Activity |
Instructions |
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Stocking
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Materials: red construction paper, scissors, glue,
cotton balls, glitter glue, black crayon
Trace a stocking pattern on
the red construction paper and cut it out. Next, glue
cotton balls to the top of the stocking. Write each
child's name on their stocking using the black crayon (don't use
watercolor markers or the ink will run). Have each student
put glitter glue on top of their name. |
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Rudolph
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Materials:
white construction paper, brown construction paper, glue, wiggly
eyes, red pom-pom's, brown paint, scissors
Trace Rudolph's face on
brown construction paper and cut with scissors. Glue
Rudolph's face to white paper. Glue two wiggly eyes and a
red pom-pom for a nose. Paint each child's hands brown and
place at top of page to make antlers. Print out the poem
HERE to make this a special
gift for parents. Add the child's name, date, and small
school picture. |
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Tree
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Materials: green construction paper, scissors,
glitter glue, paint (various colors)
Trace a tree shape on to
green construction paper and cut out with scissors. Use
glitter glue to make "garland" on the tree and various colors of
paint to make the "ornaments". These look great with a
die-cut yellow star on top too. |
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Santa Face
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Materials: paper plates, glue, cotton balls,
crayons Cut paper
plates into the Santa shape. Use crayons to color Santa's
face and hat. Glue cotton balls on hat and face to make
beard. |
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Snowflake
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Materials: tongue depressors, glue, brush, glitter
Using the brush have
students coat three tongue depressors with white glue.
Next, cross the sticks in a snowflake shape (see picture left).
Shake glitter on top of the sticks until coated and let dry.
These look great as Christmas tree ornaments, you don't even
need a string to hang them.
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Wreath
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Materials: small paper plates, green tissue paper,
red tissue paper, glue, scissors
Cut a hole in the middle of
a small paper plate. Glue small squares of green tissue
paper to the paper plate. After the plate is covered in
green tissue paper crumple small balls of red tissue paper and
glue to plate to resemble holly berries. |
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Magic Reindeer Food |
Here is a link to the recipe
and directions at
DLTK I suggest putting the mix in a bag instead of a
glass jar
for obvious reasons. You can decorate the bag to
look like a reindeer- see
KinderTeacher website for picture, printables, and
directions. |
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Classroom Holiday Party |
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I get many requests for
help with classroom parties. My philosophy for
classroom parties is "K.I.S.S." (Keep It Simple Silly)
and "less is more". Our holiday party goes like
this:
Read Aloud:
Teacher reads holiday story or stories. If you have
students who celebrate other holidays read one story from
each.
*TIP:
If parents attend your parties have them read stories to the
class while you supervise the set up of the games or snacks.
Sing-a-long:
We sing our favorite holiday songs, I let the
students pick which songs to sing. See the music section
above to see my favorite holiday CD's to use in the classroom.
Games: We
play the games described below in the games
section.
Activity: *OPTIONAL*
This could be any type of special project that you would not
normally do. We do not always do an activity for our
holiday parties, it depends on the time and money available.
When we do have special holiday activities I like to use
Oriental Trading sticker stories. We use these for each
holiday and turn them into a math activity by writing
sentences at the bottom such as:
"______ has 5
candy canes" "_____ has 4 reindeer" etc.
Snack:
We have a special holiday snack and juice boxes. I do
not allow cups or any other liquid beverages as they always
spill. If parents want to bring treats I encourage
cookies instead of cakes or cupcakes as they are less messy.
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Santa Says
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Materials: one
Santa hat
This game is played
just like Simon Says, only Santa does the talking! Kids
love wearing the hat and being "Santa", a sure hit at any party!
When playing this game with 4 year olds you might consider using
picture prompts for "Santa", it is very difficult for 4's to
come up with actions on their own. I used Microsoft
clip art to make signs for clapping, jumping, etc. You can
put the pictures on index cards, laminate, and put them on a
ring so "Santa" can flip through them and choose. |
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Pass the Candy Cane
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Materials:
candy canes, stocking, holiday music
This game is played just
like "Hot Potato". Place enough candy canes in a Christmas
stocking for each child. When you play the holiday music
the children pass the stocking around the circle. When the
music stops the person who is holding the stocking gets to
take out a candy cane to eat (or take home). Keep playing
until all children have a candy cane.
*Variation:
I have also played this game with an empty stocking and
the child who was left holding the stocking got to come up and
choose a Scholastic book as a gift (see gifts section
below for more details) |
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Here are some ideas
below for student gifts.
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Books
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Scholastic books are the best
gifts a teacher can give. You can use your bonus points
from your book club orders to get free books to give to your
students for the holidays. For this reason Scholastic
usually has two or three one dollar books around the holidays
offered exclusively to teachers. |
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Snowman Soup
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This is a cute and
inexpensive gift idea to give to your students. Here is a
link to the ingredients and directions at
DLTK |
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Great Gift Ideas |
Colleen at Teaching Heart
has compiled a great list of gift ideas for kids and colleagues
too! Click
HERE |
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Printables |
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Rudolph
Roll 'N Stamp
Coming Soon!
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1-5
Counting Grid
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Patterning Strips
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Christmas
Words
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Rudolph
1:1 Mat
Coming Soon!
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Rudolph Positional Word Book
Coming Soon! |
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Resources |
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