Holiday Activities to Beat the Christmas Wiggles

Do your students get the "wiggles"??  That seemingly incurable wiggliness that comes with the excitement of the holiday season!  I've taught grades 5-12 and it seems no matter the age they still still get the wiggles!

Here are a few ways that I've battled the wiggles over the 15 years I've been teaching - I hope you find them helpful in your own wiggly classrooms!

1.  Give the students opportunities to walk around and move - helps to get the wiggles out!!  Play "Four Corners" and ask holiday themed questions.  To play "Four Corners" print out four signs (Agree, Somewhat Agree, Disagree or Somewhat Disagree) and post them in the four corners of your room.  Ask your students a question or give a statement and ask them to go to the corner that best represents their thoughts.  Great opportunity to share ideas, discuss and debate, chat with someone who has a different opinion etc.  Here are some examples - you could ask your students to submit their own statements too!

• Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year.
• Giving is better than receiving.
• I would love to be an Elf. 
• I love winter more than summer.
• I would rather be too cold than too hot.
• I would rather have a fake Christmas tree.
• I wish Christmas was in July. 

 2.  Winter Word Challenge—Divide students into teams of 3-4.  Give them a topic such as “Winter Sports” and see which team can come up with the longest list in 2 minutes. Other categories could include — Movies / Books / Songs with “Winter” in the title, winter clothing, US states that see snow, words you can make with the letters in “Winter Holidays”, things that get slippery when they freeze, Christmas carols, Christmas foods, adjectives to describe winter, famous winter sports athletes, winter word for each of the first 10 letters of the alphabet….)

3. Book Reviews - I've been having a lot of success lately asking students to post a book review of their favorite book.  Other students love to read what their classmates have to say about a book and quite often end up reading a book if it's been recommended by a friend.  Reading has increased as a result!  My students really enjoy a fun template to write their reviews on and so I try to provide different ones throughout the year.  Here's a fun freebie for you to use - it's Festive Book Reviews!  I've included four templates for you to use - two are Christmas themed and two are Winter themed. I've also included both color and black/white templates.  Enjoy!

I hope that you and your families have a wonderful holiday season!

Addie