I love the Christmas cheer that flows around December. It’s fun and the students just seem genuinely happy. I don’t know if that’s because we have a 2 week break or because it’s just a happy time of the year. I also love adding in December activities into my classroom because it just is fun!
Choice Boards
Not everything that we do has to be 100% from us. We can provide options for our students. In fact, that’s how my husband and I made it through the first few years of our sons life. We gave him options that we agree with. I was able to apply that to my students. I give my students a choice board and they are able to choose 3 different activities to complete throughout the month of December. Adding these into our schedule was a game changer because the students seem to enjoy having a variety of things to choose from. Check them out here.
Centers
We need to make sure our students are still focused and on task throughout the month. No one said we couldn’t have cute centers that go with it. I love creating a center and then adding in there some reindeer or elves. It allows us to have a little bit of holiday spirit in our classroom even though we don’t have anything big in our room.
Math Pack
Although we are teaching upper elementary students, that doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate holidays. One of my favorite ways to do this is by adding elves or reindeer to their practice pages. I usually like my students to have some type of math practice as homework, math center, or even morning work. These math pages are absolutely perfect for this because they can review past skills like
Factors
•Multiples
•Writing Standard Form
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•Division
•Simplify Fractions
•Multiply Decimals
•Equivalent Fractions
and still be themed around Christmas!
Escape Room
Do you love escape rooms? I LOVE them…but I HATE prepping them. Sometimes I will skip a step or something to print and then get frustrated. I ended up creating my winter digital escape room that I can use in December. It’s fun, engaging, and it builds teamwork within the classroom. It really is amazing to watch the students come together to break out of their room!
Catch an Elf Activity
You know I love all things science – which was probably evident in the Halloween post. For Decebver, I wanted something fun and engaging but again…based around the holidays! I used the book “How to Catch an Elf” and give my students a ton of popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. If you’re pressed for time, bring in your hot glue gun and have the students tell you where to place the glue. I do not let my students do this part but I double check to make sure it’s what they want! Not only are you integrating your ELA into your STEM block but it has never been as important then now! Read the adorable book How to Catch an Elf and then allow the students to work on drafting their trap! Check out the pages that go with it.
