There are two months during the year I find homeschooling is absolutely the WORST! The first is May because the year is almost over and you (and your kids) can feel it and the second is December when Christmas is right around the corner and ALL conversations revolve around Christmas trees, Christmas presents, Christmas parties…pretty much anything Christmas! Today, I’m going to share Christmas activities for homeschool classrooms!
I have found it is best to embrace the Christmas craziness and focus your homeschool classroom activities around the most festive time of the year.
Homeschool Christmas Curriculum Ideas
Here are 3 festive teaching ideas to incorporate Christmas activities for homeschool into your curriculum.
Themed Lessons
If you can’t beat them, join them, right? Try creating classroom activities that are focused around Christmas. Your children can bring their excitement right into their work!
There are so many free printables out there. But, I really love using a Christmas-themed pack like this Christmas Kindergarten Workbook or the December Preschool Pack. It provides you with so many skills-based activities revolving all around the month of December and Christmas!
With older students, I have seen many amazing homeschool moms and dads take the Target or Amazon toy catalog and teach decimals, money, and other math skills using the prices next to each toy. I have also seen parents have their children cut out different pictures and organize them into different groups, like color, size, etc. It is a totally fun way to learn and recycle at the same time.
You can use so many Christmas objects (lights, presents, cookies) to create themed lessons and make an average activity into a Christmas activity.
Christmas Writing
What better time to teach the structure of a letter than Christmas. The time when EVERY child is getting ready to write their letter to Santa. This is the perfect writing prompt and allows you to show your children how to structure a friendly letter. Plus, you are killing two birds with one stone: covering writing skills and getting their Christmas lists organized.
You can also have your children write out their own Christmas cards as well and help them compare and contrast the difference between a Christmas card and a letter to Santa.
If you have older students, it is also a great chance to practice different grammar skills, including the correct punctuation and capitalization of names, addresses, etc. for when they are addressing envelopes.
Christmas Games in the Classroom
The last Christmas teaching idea I have is to incorporate a Christmas game whenever you can. Games are engaging any time of the year, but if you can bring in Christmas games and make learning interactive (and maybe competitive) it will be easier to make it through the month of December.
One fun Christmas game is a baking competition. It helps your children learn measurements and baking skills and you can have them compete for best cookie, or best decorating. It is not your average game and your kids probably won’t even realize they are learning. For older students, think about having them use a conversion chart and converting the different measurements.
During the holiday season, there is one thing you will find a lot of and that is Christmas tree decorations. Use plastic or non-shatter Christmas balls to create your own Skee-ball and have your children add up their points or for older students, have them find the average of their 3 games, etc.
My last Christmas activities for homeschool idea is use Christmas photos and play an iSpy game. It is always fun to see what different objects children see when shown a picture of the North Pole or a Christmas tree with presents under it! You can even have them practice their writing skills by writing out their iSpy sentences. It also helps them develop their inferencing skills!
Classic Christmas Curriculum in the Classroom
There are so many ways to incorporate Christmas activities for homeschool into your curriculum. You can use a themed Christmas pack, bring in holiday objects to create fun Christmas activities, or use already common Christmas activities and develop/change them into skills-based activities.
December may be one of the hardest and most stressful months for homeschooling parents, but if you embrace the craziness and the holiday spirit, there is plenty of ways to make the month fun and educational for your students!
I’d love to know how you incorporate Christmas activities for homeschool into your classroom?
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Here are a few Christmas themed homeschool activities you might enjoy:
Huge Christmas Workbook – Kindergarten