Seasonal Activities for your pupils that do and don't celebrate the holiday!

Finding the balance between learning and fun this Christmas time can be a difficult one in any classroom with pupils of any age!

Christmas is a time full of fun, creativity and enjoyment yet we don't want to lose all of that potential learning time- with these Christmas Educational Activities, you don't have to!

Discover how your pupils can learn through play this Christmas!

Invite your little learners to practice their spellings this season whilst beautifully creating colour paper chains at the same time.

Lay out all your different coloured strips of paper at the front of the class and invite pupils to come up and choose their colours!

Pupils must then spell those colours correctly to get them! Once they’ve collected their colours, they can string and glue them together to create a beautiful classroom Christmas decoration!

This can even work for older pupils, by choosing more difficult words for them to spell.

*TOP TIP: For pupils that don’t celebrate Christmas, they can make a very cool piece of artwork by gluing the colourful strips down onto a piece of card forming any shape they like or crafting some abstract art! *

Why don’t you give your pupils the opportunity to try their hand at some creative writing this Christmas with these engaging story-time starters?

1. One Christmas Eve, Santa wakes up with a cold! Mrs Claus must fill in for him this year!

2. Oh no! One of the elves snuck into Santa’s sack and got left behind in somebody’s house, how will he get home?

3. Vixen escaped from Santa’s sleigh whilst he was delivering presents, where is he now?

4. The big Christmas tree at the North Pole just won’t light up, no one can get it to work! Will they fix it in time for Christmas?

5. Rudolph has woken up one morning and his nose is no longer red! What ever will he do?

Or, if your pupils don’t celebrate Christmas, then they can try one of these!

1. One day, your teacher wakes up with a cold! You must fill in for them today!

2. Oh no! Your stuck in your classroom overnight! What do you do?

3. Your pet has decided to go on holiday, where’ve they gone?

4. Whoops! All the lights have gone off in your town! What do you do next?

5. One of your friends has lost his PE Kit, he’s very upset. Where is it and how did he lose it?

1.  How many reindeer does Santa have? A: 9

2. What colour did Santa originally wear? A: Green

3. Who is said to have stolen Christmas? A: Grinch

4. What wouldn’t the other reindeers let Rudolph do because of his nose?   A: Join in any reindeer games

5. What typically goes on top of the Christmas tree? A: Angel / Star

6. One of Santa’s reindeer has a name beginning with ‘V’, what is it? A: Vixen

7. Which fairy tale features a gingerbread house? A: Hansel and Gretel

8. What was Frosty the Snowman’s nose made from? A: A Button

9. What do people traditionally leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve?            A:     Milk and Mince Pies

10. How many times in a row does Santa say ‘ho’? A: Three

A Quiz for those who don’t celebrate!

1. How many days are there in February in a leap year? A: 29

2. What colour is the ‘M’ in the McDonald’s logo? A: Yellow

3. Who is Harry Potter’s best friend? A: Ron Weasley

4. In the famous animation film, the weather is cloudy with a chance of what? A: Meatballs

5. In the night sky, people typically wish on what? A: A shooting star

6. What begins with a ‘T’ and is a fruit but is often called a vegetable?            A: Tomato

7. Which fairy tale features a poisonous apple? A: Snow White

8. What leaf do people often think is good luck? A: A four-leaf clover

9. What do cows drink? A: Water

10. In the song, ‘sing a song of sixpence’, what is the pocket full of? A: Rye

Get those creative brains going once more with this fantastic Acrostic Poem Lesson Plan!

The trick is every line must be Christmas themed!

1.      TREE

2.      ANGEL

3.      MERRY

4.      PRESENTS

5.      NATIVITY

*For those who don’t celebrate:

1.      SUNSHINE

2.      HAPPY

3.      SMILE

4.      SING

5.      WINTER

Christmas Snow and Tell:

1. Invite your pupils to think of their favourite Christmas memory ever!

2. Ask them if they can paint that memory onto paper.

3. Invite pupils who would like to share to come to the front and share with their classmates why that Christmas memory was their favourite.

This is one of our most sentimental Christmas activities of all!

*This is super simple for those who don’t celebrate, as they can just recall their favourite memory from home! *

See how fast your pupils can deliver presents to one another!

Split them into teams of four and give them pre-wrapped cardboard boxes to run with.

Are any of them faster than Santa Claus?

For those who don’t celebrate, pupils can still celebrate by participating in a relay race with a painted cardboard box instead of a wrapped one!

1.   LJIENG BSLEL – Jingle Bells

2.  UPDGIND- Pudding

3.  EDERNIRE- Reindeer

4.  WSNMNAO- Snowman

5.  IUEYELDT- Yuletide

Non-Christmas Anagrams

1.   EMCERDBE- December

2.  YMRIAPR- Primary

3.  KOMROWEH- Homework

4. DWUNRELOF- Wonderful

5. CTTNIEMEXE- Excitement

Why not have a Christmas themed game of Pictionary with your class- this game works for all pupils (even those who don’t celebrate)

Create two bowls of picture ideas- one Christmassy and one regular!

Pupils can then come to the front, pick an idea, and then draw it on the board for their fellow pupils to guess.

Pupils can even be split into smaller groups and draw their pictures on mini whiteboards and invite people to guess!

Get those arty imaginations going with this card-making activity that can be adjusted to suit all!

Children can choose to make either a Christmas Card for their loved ones, or a Thank you card to all of those that have helped them throughout the year!

How exciting!

Everyone knows the classic song, the 12 days of Christmas, but not everyone wants eight maids a-milking in their stocking this festive season!

Invite your little learners to write their own endings to the songs with their Christmas lists!

Children who don’t celebrate can simply swap out the lines and write their own lyrics! Here are some ideas that they could swap them with:

• On the first day of school…
• On the first day of (their birth month) …
• On the first day of the weekend…
• On the first day of half-term…

They can then finish the lines with fun memories or wishes that they have!

The festive season is an incredibly fun time of the year but not everyone is celebrating the same way as you! With these versatile lesson activities, the learning doesn’t have to stop and neither does the fun! Make the classroom the best place to be this December with these Primary School Activities!