Write
all about it!
*Draw Santa's sleigh and
reindeer.
*What do you think the North Pole looks like?
*At Christmas, I can
smell/hear/see/taste/feel......
*All I want for Christmas is...
*If you worked for Santa, what would your job be?
*What would is the best gift you could give
someone?
*What would be the best present to give your Mom
or Dad?
* The presents were all wrapped in pretty bows,
Zachary decided to....
*I love to give to others because....
*T'was the night before Christmas and .....
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Great Books and Activities To Match
Rotten
Ralph's Rotten Christmas
Discuss all
the rotten things Ralph did and then have your
students write
about what they think was Ralph's most rotten
moment!
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Christmas
ABC
After reading this
book, have your
class brainstorm holiday words. Give
each student a large construction paper Christmas
tree with the letters: C, H, R, I, S, T, M, A,
S printed vertically. Have students
fill in Christmas words that begin with those
letters:
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The Littlest Christmas Tree:
A Tale of Growing & Becoming
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The
12 Bugs of Christmas: A Pop-Up Christmas Counting
Book
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Santa's
New Suit
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How
Santa Lost His Job
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The
Snowy Day
by Ezra
Jack Keats
Boardbook
- bigbook
/
Hardcover
/ paperback
Click
for a large unit to match this book!
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Polar
Express
by Chris Van Allsburgh
(Houghton Mifflin 1985)
Get
the hardback
/ Get
the tape / Get
the gift pack
Click
for many ideas to go with this book!
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Who's
That Knocking on Christmas Eve?
by Jan Brett
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Auntie
Claus
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The
Night Before Christmas : Poem
get
the tape/
hardback/paperback
Click
here for ideas to match this book
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Cold
Lady!!
For Great Ideas to match, click
here!!
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17 Christmases is
a Christmas adventure for a family
that goes on a holiday road trip to visit
relatives and friends in 17 states. They
start in California make their way all over the USA
seeing new things and
experiencing how Christmas is different
depending on where you live. One thing that
remains constant is the celebration of the birth
of Jesus by their family and friends no matter
what state they are in. We enjoyed reading
this especially because my eight year old son
loves Geography. They discuss 17 states and
many of which we were familiar with and the ones
we weren’t we learned a little about. My
4 year old daughter enjoyed the story. The
text is fun to read with the rhyming on each
page. The illustrations do a good job of
showing what a certain state may look like at
Christmas Time. Then the ending of the story
finds the little boy thankfully climbing into bed
in his home state saying, "I thank God for
Jesus and family galore, For seventeen
Christmases---never a chore." I
highly recommend this Christmas story especially
if you find yourself traveling from place to
place to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
For more Christmas and Winter Lessons, Book
Ideas, and More follow the link below. http://www.teachingheart.net/xmas.html
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Some
Math Ideas
Graphing Ideas: Where we
will spend the holiday, Our favorite kind of
Christmas Cookie, Our favorite Christmas Song...
The dollar shops often
sell the seasonal metallic confetti that you
place inside greeting cards. Use it in your
class for a fun math readiness activity.
Tape a few short rows of scotch tape (sticky side
up) onto a small
square of paper. The children then place
the seasonal shapes onto the tape and form
patterns. They "read" them to the class
when they are
done..."Snowflake, snowflake, holly,
snowflake, snowflake, holly..." Well,
you get the idea!
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BBoard
ideas
Cover a board with a white
background and place the title Stocking Stuffers
on the board. Make a large stocking out of poster
board. Staple it to the board. Make sure the top
is opened so that it can be stuffed. Have each
child write his or her name on a strip of paper.
Ask them to cut out pictures from magazines of
things they would like for Christmas and glue
them to their strip. Now stuff the stocking!
Class Choir
Have each student draw his
or her portrait on a paper plate. ask them to
draw the mouth in a singing position. Attach a
red bow to the chin of each face. Arrange the
faces on the class bulletin board with the title,
"Our Class Choir".
Dear Santa
In the center of your
bulletin board put a picture of a reindeer or
Santa. Give each of your children a piece of
paper folded in half. Have them write or draw the
list of gifts they want Santa to bring them.
Here are some pictures of
some bulletin board art projects!
  
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My Favorite Songs, Poems, and Fingerplays
SHY
SANTA
Isn't it the strangest thing,
That Santa is so
shy?
(hide face with hands)
We can never, never catch him, (make fingers run)
No matter how we try.
It isn't any use to
watch, (hold hand to eyes
and look)
Because my parents said,
"Santa Claus will only come
When children are in
bed!" (shake finger)
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10
LITTLE ELVES
10 Little Elves
Jumping in the slay
One falls off and.... slides away
Santa calls the reindeer and the reindeer say
"No more jumping in Santa's slay
9 little elves
jumping in the slay
etc.
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Click
here to see many links to poems, songs, stories,
and fingerplays
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Christmas
Presents
See the many presents by the
Christmas tree,
(Point to eye; sweep hand in wide half-circle;
form tree with hands.)
Some for you,
(Point to others.)
And some for me.
(Point to self.)
Long ones,
(Spread hands wide apart.)
Tall ones,
(Hold hand high above head.)
Short ones, too.
(Hold hands close together.)
And here is a round one
(Make circle with arms.)
Wrapped in blue.
Isn't it fun to look and see
(Point to eyes.)
All the presents by the
Christmas tree?
(Sweep hand in wide half-circle; form tree with
hands.)
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Make
It Feel Like Christmas is Your Classroom with one
of these CD's
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Try
a video that your class can sing and dance with!
Try
one of these poem books! Click to learn more!
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Center Ideas
Christmas
Card Express-Old and new Christmas cards,
stamps(old/new),pens, pencils, markers, stickers,
envelopes, scale, mailbag, mailbox (these last
two can be handmade). Let children make and send
christmas cards.
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Program Santa
cut-outs with numbers. You could program them
with counts. Count by 2's, 5's, 10's. Place the
cutouts in a ziploc baggie. This becomes a center
that the student can take back to their desk.
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| Check
out the Teaching
Heart Blog
for More Christmas Ideas and centers! |
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Holiday Part Ideas
Holiday
Party Ideas
 
Each year I have a holiday party for the kids. I
set up 4-6 centers with activities. There is one
- two adults at each center. I break the students
into groups and they rotate through the centers
as I tell them to. My husband even comes to run a
center. I always have 2 craft centers, 2 game
center, & a food center. I also put together
holiday packets (using fun worksheets). The
students bring these to the centers - so if they
finish before the center time is up, they have
something to work on.
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A Class Book Idea
Santa
Helper Class Book
Make a title page;
"If we were Santa's Helpers" You may
place a graphic of Santa on the cover.
Give each student a page.
Leave a space at the top for the student to
illustrate their paragraph. The paragraph may
read:
I would like to be Santa's
Helper.
We would fly
to_________________.
I would wave to
_________________as I flew in Santa's sleigh.
The best part about being
a helper to Santa would be
________________________________________.
The students fill in the
blanks and illustrate. Bind all the pages
together to make a class book!
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Here is my
blacklines for the book. You could purchase these
or make your own. Click
to learn more!
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Individual Books
Here
is a book that the student colors to match the
words in the book. It is a seven page book called
See Santa. You could make one of these for each
student in your class. The students color the
part of Santa after they read the sentences.
After they finish this, it becomes and easy to
read book. They can use the pictures to decode
the words. The pages in this book read:
See Santa's red hat.
See Santa's pink cheeks.
See Santa's black boots.
See Santa's green mittens.
See Santa's blue eyes.
See Santa's white beard.
See Santa's red suit.
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Here is my
blacklines for the book, I have colored some of
the pages,. You could purchase these or make your
own. Click
to learn more!
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Make a book that
each student in your class can illustrate to
match the words. It is fun to make these type of
books using the Brown Bear Pattern. One book I
like to make with my class is called, Little Boy,
Little Boy What Do You See? I place a graphic of
a tree on the front cover. The words in the book
read:
I see a green tree looking
at me. (student would draw a green tree)
Follow this pattern using other objects.
For grade k-1 - use this
book as a group activity. When the book is
finished they have a book that is easy to read at
home.
For grades 2-3 - use this
book as a comprehension tool. The student reads
it independently and illustrates after reading.
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PICTURE
COMING
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Free Christmas Activity Sheets
One thing I like to do with fun activity sheets is to
print a few of each and place them in a box with the
title, "FUN TIME SHEETS". I allow my students
to take a sheet during indoor recess or free time. This
is also great for early finishers. They enjoy this
special activity!
Activity Books From Amazon.com
Click on a title to learn more!
Some Helpful Links
My Faves!
Some Craft Or Parent Gift
Ideas!
Teacher Resources
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