Christmas break for most of my teacher friends is 1.5 weeks away, so I am sure you are eager to get through these last few days as stress-free as possible and ready for a couple of weeks of bliss! (Insert sigh of relief). Well, just so happens that I am in the business of making your job easier. So with that being said, I have 5 easy and fun Christmas ELA activities to share with you. I have also included 3 freebies at the end of this post so you can dive right in!
Speaking of diving right in, shall we?
This Christmas ELA activity blends arts and crafts with writing practice! Hand-made Christmas cards are a perfect treat to gift to family and friends or even your local nursing home like we did here. You just need paint in various colors and cardstock, construction paper, or whatever good quality paper you have on hand. Students use their fingerprints to create Christmas lights along the cord for the cover and on the inside, they write the sweetest messages! This can be done in class or as a fun Christmas activity at home!
Give your students a glimpse into how other cultures celebrate the holidays with this FREEBIE activity for Las Posadas! Using a “suitcase” crafted by the kiddos, students will open up to a graphic organizer for detailing facts about the holiday and comparing it to Christmas in the US with the included Venn Diagram. We paired this activity with the book, Legend of the Poinsettia. You can check out more details in this blog post.
There’s nothing more delicious than a piping hot round of cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, right?! Well, you may not be able to recreate that experience for your students but you can pretend with these “Synonym” Rolls for your next ELA Christmas activity! Students take a few of the cinnamon synonym rolls and glue their focus word in the middle. Along the rings, they write synonyms for the word. And since this activity would make anyone hungry (no, just me?), pass out this yummy concoction of cinnamon squares and marshmallows! This activity plus many more can be found in our 2nd Grade Rooted in Reading November unit, but I pulled this one out just for you for FREE below!
A classic Christmas ELA activity is having students write a letter to Santa! I spiced things up by having them create a little Santa face to top it off and write a special thank you note before getting into the good stuff– their Christmas List! The Santa template can be found in our Christmas Craze unit and you can have a better look at how I’ve used it in my instruction right here!
If you’re participating in virtual instruction solely, your students don’t have to miss out on the Christmas fun! This digital and printable Christmas ELA activity for retelling a story would be the perfect accompaniment to your read-aloud time, plus I am giving this to you as a FREEBIE! Students will use this activity to brush up on their problem and solution identification skills. I have a detailed blog post all about what’s inside of this one, you can check it out here.
And if you need some Christmas book recommendations for all the fun you will have with these activities, I have a BUNCH for you right here!
I hope you have the BEST holiday break ever with the way 2020 has treated us! But before you head out….
As promised, I have compiled 3 freebies for you in this download! You will gain access to the Las Posadas activity, Cinnamon synonyms activity, and the Digital/Printable Christmas book retell activity!
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Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Sample a day of Rooted in Reading with these lesson plans and activities for Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Grammar!
