Christmas Activities

If you want to put a little sprinkle of Christmas into your December lessons, take a peek at these ideas.  Don't forget to share your own ideas with us!

Math Activities

Mathwire.com has posted several winter math activities such as snowflake geometry, penguin patterning, problem-solving, and puzzles, snowman estimation, and more!

 

Kidzone has some math activities..my favorite is the Christmas nets for fifth grade geometry!

Science Activities

Click on the cover of Jan Brett's The Mitten for an inquiry science lesson to go along with the picture book!

 

There is nothing better than giving students real-world problems to solve.  Almost everyone can relate to the frustration of Christmas lights.  Have students explore parallel and series circuits with Christmas lights.  (Maybe they can get that strand of lights to work that has been bugging you since Thanksgiving break!) 

 

How about a sleigh race?  Santa will need a safe, sturdy, and SMOKIN' FAST sleigh!  Students could build sleighs or you could experiment with surface types.

No snow?  Older students can experiment with creating their own snow using a common polymer.  Read more about it HERE.

ELA Activities

A quick search of "winter" on ReadWriteThink.org brought up several ideas including winter in the Northern Hemisphere, how animals survive in the winter, poetry, and others.

I love having students write fractured fairy tales.  A holiday spin on this idea is "cracked carols".  We've all heard the parody "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg..."  Have the kids get creative and write their own humorous holiday carol. 

Teacher Vision has a list of several Christmas reading and language arts activities HERE.

Miscellaneous

Stacy Bodin has a list of Christmas technology lessons and ideas HERE.  You'll definitely want to scroll through the activities to see which ones you think are best.  She has them divided into categories such as:  technology links, themed Christmas pages, ELA interactives, math, and even United Streaming links.

Don't forget about the old stand-by Smart Exchange!  You can select your grade level and subject area and search "winter" or "Christmas" for lots of activities.