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December is such a fun and busy month in the kindergarten classroom! With everything going on in December, it can be tricky to lesson plan! In this post, I’m going to share some of my favorite festive kindergarten activities for December that will help you plan meaningful and engaging lessons!
December can be one of the most challenging months of the kindergarten school year, for several reasons:
With all of the challenges of December, it’s more important than ever to have a wide variety of engaging learning activities in your teacher toolkit. Keep reading for some of my favorites!
These festive activities for December will help you address some of the classroom challenges that are so common during this month. You’ll be able to maintain your learning routine with engaging and fun themed activities that will help students review literacy and math skills before leaving for the long winter break.
One of the best ways that you can keep learning on track during the busy month of December is to maintain as many routines as possible. One reason why I love December centers for literacy and math practice is that it’s easy to incorporate some seasonal fun into the academic review.
For example, students can practice word families by sorting Christmas ornaments to the correct trees. They can also write the words they sorted on a recording sheet. They can also practice reading CVC words as they build this festive holiday mystery puzzle.
The festive centers can also give students a chance to practice a variety of math skills. For example, they can play this Christmas tree game that doubles as subitizing and addition practice! Students will roll two dice and then place an ornament on the tree that matches the number of dots they rolled. This Christmas lights pattern activity is another fun center for December.
If you would like to add these engaging centers to your lesson plans for December, you can find them in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or in my TPT store.
Thematic units are such an easy way to bring some seasonal fun to your classroom while still keeping learning on track!
This Christmas unit is full of fun activities and crafts that go along with engaging readalouds for December.
For example, students can practice identifying story elements after reading the book “Santa’s Stuck” together as a class. They can complete this story elements flip book and craft to go with your classroom discussion!
“Mooseltoe” is another great read aloud for December, and this Christmas unit incorporates some literacy and math companion activities. For example, students can practice addition by putting beads on each side of the moose’s mustache and counting the total. They can also practice the important comprehension skill of sequencing with this fun lift-the-flap activity.
There are also some read alouds that can serve as inspiration for an entire thematic unit in December. “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg is one of those books!
I have written an entire blog post about how you can plan a Polar Express week in your classroom, so be sure to check it out! In the meantime, here are some of my favorite Polar Express activities to use in the kindergarten classroom during the month of December.
The first step is to read the book together as a class! This story retelling train craft is a fun way for students to discuss the story elements and practice their comprehension skills.
Then you can incorporate a variety of themed math and literacy skills into your daily learning rotation. Kindergarten students love trains, so they’ll be excited to complete these activities during math and reading time!
The Polar Express unit can also give you a fun theme for a class party before the holiday break. They can even receive their own special gift from Santa Claus!
If you would like to celebrate the season without focusing on a specific holiday, a gingerbread man theme would be perfect!
Since there are so many different gingerbread story variations out there, this can be a great opportunity for your students to practice comparing and contrasting stories. Students can complete a Venn diagram where they sort the characters who are in one or both or the gingerbread stories you read together.
The gingerbread fun can also extend into literacy and math practice! These gingerbread glyphs are always a hit with students! They love to use the key to help them create their own gingerbread boys and girls. You can also use a booklet to help them practice writing as they describe their glyphs.
Finally, students can review addition with this fun gingerbread man craft! These addition stories are perfect for a holiday classroom display!
The three thematic units that I shared in this post are included in one money-saving bundle! You can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or in my TPT store.
If you’re looking for an easy way for students to review sight words before winter break, be sure to grab this free sight word game! This Christmas tree sight word activity is editable, so you can customize it to fit the needs of your students! Just fill out the form below and I’ll send it straight to your inbox!
Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite board on kindergarten ideas on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these festive activities when you’re putting together your December lesson plans.
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
