Hidden Helpers

To build classroom community and celebrate holiday cheer in your classroom, implement Hidden Helpers! Each student is assigned a secret pal. They do something nice for their secret pal each week without letting their pal know who his or her hidden helper is. (Rules: No material gifts) Children can provide a helpful hand, compliment or do a favor for their pal.

Simple Kid-Made Holiday Gifts

Check out my post over at We Are Teachers: Simple and Affordable Kid-Made Holiday Gifts!

Create a Digital Advent Calendar

If you celebrate Christmas at your school or with your children at home, you can create a simple digital advent calendar to surprise your kids with a different activity a day! 

Signup for a free Weebly account. Choose a website layout and add images and adjust the typeface to give it a Christmas theme. Weebly is a super simple website creator with a drag and drop feature, no coding required. To make your calendar, drag "buttons" located under "structure" in the left side panel. Type numbers in each button. To arrange the buttons in a grid, move around the "dividers" and align buttons left, center or right until they are lined up. You can add dividers which are also located under "structure." If you want to make special buttons, you can upload them as images.

Once your site is laid out, add links! Click on each button, hit link and paste the website url for a fun activity. That's it! You could even have kids write a special message or create a video message for some links and share with the parents of the students in your class. Parents will enjoy seeing what's next on the advent calendar. As a class, you could vote on what you should put up each day. Here is the link to the one I made featured left.

12 Days of Christmas

This Christmas activity integrates creative writing, growing patterns, ordinal numbers, and adding money! First, introduce the song "12 Days of Christmas." Then, have kids create their own version, using ordinal numbers and a growing pattern. They can include gifts from multiple people in their lives or a single person. They can even include their dog! Afterwards, have students research the cost of their items (internet activity). Who spent the least and most amount of money?!

Gingerbread Geometry

Explore area, perimeter, and volume by constructing a gingerbread house! Click here for directions from Math Wire! 

Project Santa: Makeover Challenge

I loved Mrs. T's First Grade's Santa Suit Challenge! So, I was inspired to create my own! Check out what Mrs. T's fashionistas and fashionistos came up with. Also, this activity goes along with a book. Plus, kids have a small persuasive writing activity to explain why their suit is so cool. Click here for the details and a free printable! 

Another idea: rather than using the printable, kids could design + draw specific items for a creative writing project: Santa Needs a Vacation!! (what should he wear - depending on where he goes) - this could fit into a landform lesson and kids could design a postcard with Santa and the landform!

Koch Snowflake

Integrate art and geometry by constructing a Koch Snowflake. Students draw an equilateral triangle. Then, they keep adding smaller equilateral triangles to create a symmetrical snowflake. See this project in action here!

View a kid version over at 4 Kids 2 Guinea Pigs! - plus step by step instructions.

Visit Wonder How To: Math Craft to see how to construct a koch snowflake out of pennies!

Check out Hektor for 3-dimensional versions!

Wanted Gingerbread

First, have kids design a paper gingerbread (man, lady, boy, girl, baby, etc.). They can decorate it with colored glue for icing, buttons for candy eyes, etc. 

Next, have kids fill out a wanted poster for their paper cookies. Tell them to be very descriptive about what their cookie looks like. Click here to download!

Then, hang the gingerbread cookies up around the room and collect their wanted posters. Pass the posters back out randomly, making sure each child doesn't have their own mini poster. Kids turn into mini detectives. They have to read the description on the poster and find the missing gingerbread cookie!

Kid-Crafted Christmas

Take home gifts that are easy to construct in the classroom!

Featured Ornaments
1. Stick Stars and Snowflakes - Real Simple
(Also check out Pretty Ditty - made with glue and Foothill Home Companion)
2. Crystalized - Wymondley JMI School: Science Club
3. Heart Weave - Activity Village
4. Melted Snowman - Craft Elf
5. Paint Swirl - Crafts For Alll Seasons
7. I SPY - Craft Snob - (not pictured)
8. Yarn Ball - Courtney OQuist / Geometric Star - Creative Jewish Mom

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it Snow!
1. Featured left: Kid Face Snow Globe - Design Mom
2. Snow Globe with Figurines - NAPSAC

Elves Wanted and Santa Style

First, create a "Wanted" ad and glue it in a newspaper. Kids check out the ad in the newspaper. Then, they fill out an application. Job Applications can be filled out in hard copy format or online, using google forms. In a couple days, they're hired! Next, they get a photo id badge. You can take kids' pictures wearing elf attire or have them draw themselves as an elf! Around the classroom, create pretend workstations! Click here for the free printable: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JTPIxUxmwuxW6rhPvUAU-1Uf5gtFLqXE/view?usp=sharing

I got inspired by Krazy for Kindergarten Goes to Third Grade's Santa Suit Shopping activity, so I made my own. Costs of Santa's attire are left blank, so different age groups can play the activity. So, depending on how well your class does with counting money, write a price for each item. You could also have kids write their own prices. Then, they have a friend go shopping for Santa!

Also Check out  Krazy for Kindergarten Goes to Third Grade's reindeer games, cookie fractions and needs vs. wants activity, really cute!

How Does Santa Slide Down the Chimney?!

materials:
hard boiled egg - Santa
black sharpie - face
jar with a neck - chimney
flame - fireplace 

Magic Crystal Tree

Visit Steve Spangler for the explanation!

Grow a Crystal Star

You can also create other shapes in different colors! Click here to make a rainbow!

Handprint Calendar

Snow Flake, Heart - Share and Remember 
4 Leaf Clover - Meet the Dubiens
Earth - Busy Hands Art
Butterfly - Michelle's Journal Corner
Fish - Bobo Gallery
Flag
Sun
Crayons - Mrs Kilburn Kiddos
Pumpkin - Dana Hinders
Turkey
Lights - Tip Junkie
Tree - Mom 2 Posh Diva

Gumdrop Earthquake

Mr. Hansen's 7th grade Science class demonstrated "the effects of earthquakes on engineered structures." See who can build the strongest structure. Who's will last the longest through a fake earthquake?

Visit Exploratorium to find out how to build a strong, long lasting structure!

Christmas Soap!

Confetti Soap, all you need is glycerin soap and food coloring.

1. First, you melt the glycerin in the microwave, add food coloring to 1/3 of your solution, stir
2. Next, pour the solution out and let it get hard
3. Once it hardens up, cut the soap into small pieces and add to your mold (sprayed with cooking spray). 
4. Pour the clear solution over your confetti pieces, let set, pop out, and enjoy!

Treasure Soap

1. Choose trinkets to put inside your soap, then place them in an oiled ice cube tray or other soap mold
2. Melt glycerin in the microwave
3. Pour right over top of your trinkets and let set (trinkets will come out of the soap through washing)

Snowball Soap

1. Grate Ivory brand soap with  a cheese grater
2. Add a little water, not too much.
3. Mold the soap into a ball with your hands and let it set to harden

Enjoy your Christmas soap!