Festive Lessons To Engage Students

I am very excited to be able to share these holiday season lessons with you to help give you ideas to make this holiday season special in your class! Several Canadian teacher-bloggers have gotten together to share some of our favourite holiday activities which we use to help to keep our students engaged. I love how there are multiple lessons included in this link up which that can be adapted to suit the needs of various grade levels and that they are provided by a variety of teachers.  I hope you can use some of the many ideas contributed through this link up as you plan this holiday season for your students.

Making the months of December engaging for kindergarten students can be a challenge when they are all excited about the upcoming holidays and having a break from school. I do many of the following activities every other year. Below is a list of ideas to use to inspire learning but it is too big to be able to do everything all in one year!

I have rarely found a child that does not love cookies. The taste of gingerbread is sometimes new to students but over the years I have found many kids enjoy it!

Writing Activities
Usually we read at least 3 different versions of a gingerbread book and often watch a video or listen to an audio read aloud. There are so many variations that it is easy to expand this into many areas of the curriculum.

• Which is your favourite, video, audio or the book version? {media}
• Write about your favourite part and draw a picture of it.
• Who is your favourite character?
• Write the recipe to share with your family.
• Write a list of toppings to add to the cookies we will make.

Baking
As a class or in small groups we use our measuring skills, learn about cleanliness, different ingredients and health foods. We always end up making one huge gingerbread man. It is fun to be bakers and learn about how they are a community helper! We put it in the oven together and he mysteriously disappears.

Gingerbread Hunt
On the stove top the gingerbread man leaves a poem for the children to try to catch him. We visit different parts of the school each day looking for clues (cookie crumbs left on the floor which are from the big cookie) and end up finding new clue each day. It is quite an adventure and the kids LOVE searching for him. There are many different hunts that can be found online. I have made my own which we use each year. Every year he "mysteriously" leaves for another school but is generous to our students as he leaves behind gifts of gingerbread "babies" to share in the principles office.

Poetry
In all activities in our class, we try to make sure that we can hit as many different curriculum expectations as we can to get the maximum benefit for our students. Shared reading, choral reading and eventually independent reading are fun ways to engage students with poetry. Math graphing and supporting subitizing skills is always beneficial. Writing words from the poem, probability and even a fun bean bag tosses which add a reading component are always a hit with our students. I alternate between two poems throughout the holiday season. Click on this link, or on the image below, to see the poems I use and the various activities included!

Do you have any other fun engaging gingerbread activities that you love to do with your class? I'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment below.


Check out these other amazing blogs for festive lessons to engage students written by some amazing Canadian teacher-bloggers! There are lessons and ideas for a wide variety of grades included in this blog hop!