Holiday Activities and Freebies!
As much fun as it can be to enjoy the holiday season with your kindergarteners, it can be challenging to balance learning and fun! We want to make special memories with our students but we also want them to learn as much as possible during the school year. In this post, I’m sharing engaging holiday activities for kindergarten that can make it easier to maintain this balance as the holidays approach.
It can be tempting to let the holidays pass without including them in the daily learning routine. After all, there is a lot of curriculum to cover and it never feels like there’s enough time! However, there are many ways why it’s worth the time to celebrate holidays with your kindergarteners:
I wanted to share some holiday activities for kindergarten that can help you celebrate and enjoy the season with your students while still keeping learning on track. These engaging activities can help you balance learning and fun as the holidays approach.
Read alouds are such an easy way to add some seasonal fun to the classroom while still working on important comprehension skills. There are many great books to read with students in December! You can use companion activities to enhance the read aloud experience with your students.
For example, this sequencing activity is a fun way for students to review the story events from Mooseltoe. Each lift-the-flap ornament on the moose’s mustache represents one item from his holiday to-do list. Students can use their sequencing skills to put them in order.
Craft projects aren’t just a fun way to pass the time! They are a very engaging way for students to practice a variety of skills. For example, they can practice following directions as they assemble the craft. It’s important for them to put the pieces together in the right sequence for it to work out! Students can also practice important fine motor skills as they cut out and assemble the pieces of the craft.
Crafts can also incorporate additional academic skill practice. This gingerbread craft is a great example! Students can add a combination of gingerbread man and gingerbread girl cookies to a cookie sheet made from aluminum foil. Once they have filled up their cookie sheet, they can write an addition sentence to go with it!
You can also incorporate some holiday fun into your math practice! There are many different math concepts that you can make more engaging with a holiday twist. These math activities can keep students on track during morning work time, math centers, and more!
This gingerbread roll and cover activity is a fun way for students to practice addition. Students will roll two dice, add the total number of dots, and then color the corresponding number on the game mat.
Students can also practice addition with this stocking-themed activity. Students can match each numbered stocking to the correct number, then attach them to the worksheet for a lift-the-flap activity.
In addition to math practice, you can add some seasonal engagement to your daily literacy practice. Adding holiday-themed activities to your literacy centers, morning work, and small groups can help students keep their skills sharp as winter break approaches.
Polar Express is a fun read aloud to include in your December lesson plans! You can use the story to inspire some holiday-themed phonics practice. Students can match pictures to the CVC word on each train.
You can also use a holiday theme for writing practice in your classroom! Students love to write their own gingerbread story after reading about the Gingerbread Man! They can write their story and then create a fun craft for the front cover.
When it’s time for a classroom celebration, you can still incorporate some learning tasks into your festivities.
For example, a hot cocoa party is a fun way to celebrate the holiday season with your students! But you can still balance the fun with learning by turning it into a graphing activity! Students can taste their hot cocoa without and then with marshmallows, deciding which they prefer.
Students can place their votes on a classroom anchor chart, then fill out their own worksheet to practice graphing and analyzing data.
To sum it up, thematic units are a great way to incorporate all of these fun holiday activities into your classroom. They are the perfect way to balance fun and learning during the holiday season! You can enjoy the festivities with your students as you keep learning on track with standards-based learning activities.
I have put together a set of holiday thematic units that you can add to your December lesson plans. It includes all of the activities that I shared in this post, along with many more! Each unit in this bundle includes all of the craft templates and printables you’ll need to add these units to your lesson plans.
If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this bundle, you can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or in my TPT store.
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite board of holiday activities for kindergarten. You’ll be able to quickly find these resources when you’re working on your holiday lesson plans.
