Another holiday season is upon us. As a full-time working mom this season of life brings so many joys and challenges all at once. I love Christmas and all of the festive flair, but at the end of the day I only have so much in my cup to pour out. Somewhere between making sure my students make the best memories the week before break and making sure my own children create beautiful memories at home I usually end up almost losing my mind. However, oddly enough, I know I wouldn’t be able to do the holidays any other way. So, as I sit here wrapping up the last full week of school before winter break, I remind myself to breathe, and embrace the goodness that comes from this time of year.
You know the holiday goodness I’m talking about… Hallmark Christmas movies while drinking hot chocolate by the fire… Haha just kidding (kind of). I mean the spirit of Christmas where people think of others before themselves and spend time making memories as a family (even if you are the one who has to orchestrate, plan, and prepare said activities), listen to Christmas music, and hopefully remember all of the great holiday memories from your childhood.
It’s always my goal as someone who comes and goes from students’ lives year after year to help them find enjoyment in all seasons of life no matter what we may be going through. Therefore, this time of year, for me, always brings some fun, festive classroom chaos, and in case you are interested I’d like to share.
- Rewriting the lyrics to “Frosty the Snowman”
(Here is a link to a copy of the lyrics with blanks to fill in).
My students wrote a song called “Snowy the elf”, however they also came up with the idea of using a gingerbread man next time. When they were finished filling in the song we sang it together, and they created some illustrations of Snowy in his setting.
2. Compare and contrast two different Holiday stories – Venn Diagram
These two stories have quite a bit in common, so it was great practice for the students to work on finding differences.
3. Holiday Acrostic poems
-have the students choose a holiday word and make an acrostic poem out of it. You can premake some of these if you choose. Some of the words we used in class were:
- Santa
- Tree
- Reindeer
- Stocking
- Gingerbread
- Elf
- Joy
You can adjust this activity to fit just about any grade level
**Extension: 1. play “Words Within Words” and have them see how many new words they can find within one of the words (i.e. – Gingerbread: read, bed, bad, ring, etc.)
2. Create a holiday sentence using the acrostic words (i.e. – The reindeer hid under the tree eating the gingerbread).
4. Silly Holiday Skits: Using holiday roll and write stories the students created skits with groups of 3-5. I gave them 15 minutes to create their skit and gather or make any props, and then they had 5 minutes to present. These were so fun and hilarious! You could also extend this in so many ways by adding in peer review sheets or performing the skits a second time with a challenge (i.e. – someone is blindfolded, or you have to hop on one foot).
I know that while holiday activities are a lot of fun, they also take a whole lot of planning! I hope that these activities help something else embrace the season a little more.