Best Christmas Activities for First Graders
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! There is so much excitement for kiddos, and it’s magical to bring that fun into the classroom.
Let me help you make December even more merry with the best Christmas activities for first graders! From math and writing to movement and STEM, get ready to sprinkle these goodies into your upcoming plans.
Merry Math Christmas Craft
Of course, Santa loves cookies and milk! Fill his plate and mug with some cookie cereal that looks just like chocolate chip cookies! Add some mini candy canes and peppermint candies for a seasonal twist on place value with tens and ones.
This Christmas Math Craft is ready for addition, subtraction, fact families, and more! There is also a hands on math center to make to the fun last all month! Click here to find the Merry Math Christmas Craft.
Holiday FREEZE! Movement Game
You know that it doesn’t take long for MERRY to turn to mayhem in the classroom! Help your kids channel that energy into something fun and productive with Holiday FREEZE. FREEZE is a whole class movement game that gets kids moving and learning at the same time.
Here’s how you play:
- Give each child one holiday vocabulary picture card.
- Play some fun holiday music as children walk around and trade cards.
- Pause the music and everyone must FREEZE!
- Read one Who has card..such as “Who has candle?” The child holding that card wins the round.
- Play the music again and continue playing!
Getting out the wiggles is just one way to use the Holiday FREEZE cards. The game comes with student writing pages so you take a few minutes to relax after the game or create a class writing center.
You can glue the cards to plastic or paper cups and add them to a morning tub or STEM center. Your little ones will be so inspired and excited to try some special holiday building.
Hide and Seek with Santa
Christmas Hide and Seek is a game your kids will want to play again and again! It’s easy to prep and you can personalize it with equations, student names, spelling words, or other skills!
To get started, choose the pocket chart game or the digital game. The digital game comes with premade slides for letters and sight words or you can type your own. The pocket chart game has autofill cards so you type your words, and they’re magically resized, centered, and perfectly placed for easy printing!
Now for the fun part! Hide Santa behind one of the cards. Students get to take turns guessing where Santa might be hiding! The pocket chart game comes with extra holiday characters and a recording sheet so you can instantly add writing to this holiday activity!
Christmas Classroom Chants
December requires some special classroom management tricks! Hang some Christmas Line Up Chants and Gathering Chants keep your kiddos engaged and help them follow directions! Each one matches a popular holiday tune so they’re fun to sing together! Click here to check them out!
Christmas Charades Classroom Game
The holidays are a time for nostalgia. I can bet you and and your students will both love playing Christmas Charades. I’m sharing this freebie with you in my TPT store.
How to play Christmas Charades:
- Project the Christmas Charades choice board.
- One student comes to the front. You can cut out the word cards and randomly select a word or let each child choose a word when they come up.
- The student silently acts out the word (Remember- it’s charades!)
- The other students raise their hand to guess. When someone guesses correctly, everyone checks that word on the recording sheet.
- The child who guessed correctly may come up next or pass their turn to someone else.
- Repeat until all of the words have been acted out and guessed!
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Looking for even more holiday fun?
Trying to be on the nice list this year? Check out the Classroom Kindness Tree and the Reindeer Crafts Activities.
You’re obviously the kind of teacher who is trying to make the holidays fun and memorable for your students! They are lucky to have you! I wish you joy during this memorable time of year with your students.
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