Christmas End of Term Activities for Kids | Holidays
It's the most wonderful time of the year! A time when teachers are usually extremely busy with grading and reports, students are restless and probably just as tired as teachers. There is a constant need for ways to keep students engaged while completing outstanding work and meeting deadlines. Here are a few activities you can use at the end of the term to keep students engaged. Some of these activities do not require guidance or support from the teacher. Students can work on them independently depending on their age and capabilities.
1. DIY Christmas Shirt or Mask
Students can be given a theme like The Nativity Scene, Santa and his Reindeer, A white Christmas etc. or you may leave all creativity to the students. They can use Christmas balls, tinsel, glitter, lights, drawings or any other material to decorate the perfect Christmas shirt/sweater or mask. You can even go further by allowing them to share their ideas with the class and explain how they decorated their shirt or mask.
2. Stocking letters
Hang a big stocking or a few at the front of the class. Ask students to write kind letters each day to someone in the class telling them how they made this year special for them and wishing them well over the holidays. At the end, the teacher can read all of the kind letters to the students. This can create harmony within the class and keep everyone in good spirits about the holidays.
3. Christmas books and Colouring Pages
Nothing keeps students occupied like a good colouring book or reading book. If you are a creative teacher, go a little further and add some Christmas jokes to these books. These will keep your little ones happy and focused. Here is an example and it is available in my TPT store. If you wish to view or grab one, click the image below.
4. Christmas Pictionary & Karaoke
Nothing beats a game of Pictionary during the holidays. It becomes even more exciting when it is mixed with some good old-fashioned karaoke. Write the names of Christmas songs on small pieces of paper and put them in a bag. Use your whiteboard or chalkboard in the class for drawing. Divide students into two groups or more. Ask each group to select a representative to draw first. The student must pull one of the Christmas songs from the bag and draw clues on the board for their group to guess the song. The group nor the representative cannot say the name of the song. Instead, the group members must all sing the Christmas song together to receive a point. This does not include the representative who is drawing the clues. If you are teaching online, try using the whiteboard in Zoom and typing the Christmas song to your students in the chat.
5. Use Christmas Themed Writing Prompts
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book but can also be very useful to both the teacher and the students. Students get to write about things that are current and fun while the teacher is able to assess student writing and thinking. For students in grades 5, 6 and 7, I have attached an example video and a printable resource available in my TPT store. if you wish to grab this resource, click the image below.
This resource is also available as a Christmas bundle with colouring pages, Christmas clip art and writing prompts. You can view it by clicking the image below.
I hope that you found these ideas helpful. Let me know how they work for you. Happy teaching!
