You know that feeling when your kindergarten students are more focused on Christmas than your lesson? Keeping little learners engaged before winter break can be a challenge, but you don’t need hours of extra planning to make December meaningful! These five hands-on Christmas activities for kindergarten will help your students keep learning, creating, and celebrating the season.
1. Create Christmas Lapbooks for Hands-On Learning
One of my favorite ways to make December learning more engaging is to give students something they can create, explore, and bring home to share with their families.
These Christmas Lapbook Activities for Kindergarten combine science, social studies, vocabulary, and early writing skills with fun, interactive pieces. Instead of completing a stack of worksheets, students create flaps, mini-books, charts, and other activities that help them explore different December themes.
The bundle includes four themes: Gingerbread, Reindeer, Christmas, and Holidays Around the World. Each theme gives students a chance to learn about something exciting while practicing important kindergarten skills. Activities include:
- Labeling
- KWL charts
- Writing prompts
- Comparisons
- Vocabulary
- Sorting
- Facts
- Mini anchor charts
- Life cycle activities
- And more!
The best part? You only need a few basic supplies, such as scissors, glue, construction paper or file folders, and crayons or markers.
You can assemble the activities into a lapbook that students take home at the end of the month, or add them to interactive notebooks that you’ll revisit throughout the school year. Use the activities together as a whole class, during small groups, or as part of your December centers.
And, if you want to take a closer look at exactly how these Christmas lapbooks work, be sure to read this post next!
But for now, let’s look at a few easy ways to extend these themes with even more hands-on learning!
2. Build Gingerbread Houses Together
Gingerbread is such a fun December theme for kindergarten, especially when you bring a little engineering and teamwork into the mix!
One activity I love is making gingerbread houses in the classroom. In my room, we collaborate with an older class for this project. The younger students get help from their older buddies, and everyone has a chance to work together to create something special.
You don’t have to use real gingerbread to make this work. Graham crackers, small milk cartons, or even recycled cardboard can serve as the base for your houses.
Here are a few tips for a successful gingerbread house activity:
Plan your materials ahead of time.
Give each group a tray with its building materials, decorations, and a base for the house. This keeps supplies organized and makes cleanup easier.
Give students a simple design challenge.
Ask them to build a house with four walls and a roof, or challenge them to create a house that can stand on its own.
Let older students be helpers, not builders.
If you’re partnering with another class, encourage the older buddies to ask questions, offer suggestions, and help younger students solve problems rather than doing the work for them.
Talk about shapes and structures.
Before building, identify squares, rectangles, and triangles. Afterward, discuss what helped the houses stay upright and what they might change next time.
Have a backup plan.
If you’re using icing or other edible materials, check for allergies and school rules first. Craft supplies or paper decorations are an easy alternative.
You can connect this activity to your gingerbread lapbook by discussing gingerbread stories, comparing different gingerbread houses, or recording what students learned about building and design.
It’s a wonderful way to bring creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration into your December plans!
3. Explore Reindeer
Your students probably know that reindeer are associated with Christmas, but how much do they know about real reindeer?
Start with a short, age-appropriate video or a nonfiction picture book about reindeer. Before you begin, ask students what they already know and what they’d like to learn. As you watch or read, pause to discuss interesting facts about where reindeer live, what they eat, and how their bodies help them survive in cold environments.
Ask students to share something new they learned from the video or story and make a class anchor chart together. Afterward, encourage students to write down some of their favorite facts they learned. If you would like a template, the Reindeer Facts activity in the Reindeer Lapbook is perfect for this.
This pairs nicely with the other reindeer lapbook activities because students can continue recording information such as new vocabulary words, labeling, and more. It also gives you an easy opportunity to introduce the difference between a fictional Christmas reindeer and a real animal.
4. Set Up a Christmas Card Writing Center
December is the perfect time to give your kindergarten students a meaningful reason to practice writing! Set up a simple Christmas card writing center where students can create cards for parents, grandparents, siblings, or other special people in their lives.
All you need is folded construction paper or blank cards, crayons, markers, and a few Christmas-themed stickers or stamps. Add a basket of simple sentence starters, such as “Merry Christmas!”, “I love you because…”, or “I hope you have a…”, to help students get started.
Students can decorate the front of their cards with festive pictures, then write a short message inside. Beginning writers might draw a picture and copy a greeting, while more advanced writers can write their own sentences.
This is a great way to practice letter formation, spelling, and sentence writing while helping students see that writing has a real purpose. Plus, they’ll have a sweet, handmade gift to share with someone they love!
Keep the center available throughout December so students can make cards as they finish other activities. It’s an easy, low-prep way to bring a little holiday cheer into your literacy routine.
5. Discover Holiday Traditions Around the World
December is also a wonderful opportunity to help kindergarten students learn that families celebrate in different ways.
Choose one country or holiday tradition to explore at a time. Read a picture book, look at photographs, and talk about the traditions people enjoy. Depending on your focus, students might learn about Christmas markets, holiday foods, decorations, or special celebrations.
Keep the lesson simple and concrete. For example, after learning about a holiday tradition involving lights, invite students to create their own paper lantern-inspired artwork or design a colorful decoration.
You can also make a class comparison chart. Ask students what they noticed about the tradition you explored and how it compares with celebrations or special traditions they know.
Be sure to explain that traditions vary from family to family, even within the same country. Some families celebrate Christmas, some celebrate other holidays, and some don’t celebrate a holiday during December at all.
The Holidays Around the World lapbook included in the Christmas bundle offers a way for students to record what they’ve learned, revisit important facts, and keep a collection of their discoveries.
Make December Learning Memorable
December doesn’t have to mean putting learning on hold until winter break. With a few simple activities, you can keep your kindergarten students exploring, creating, and practicing important skills while enjoying the excitement of the season.
From building gingerbread houses with older buddies to investigating real reindeer, creating Christmas cards, and discovering holiday traditions around the world, these activities give students meaningful ways to connect with what they’re learning.
If you’d like an easy way to bring several of these themes together, the Christmas Lapbook Activities Bundle includes four different interactive lapbooks that combine science, social studies, vocabulary, and early writing. Use them to create a special keepsake lapbook, add activities to your interactive notebooks, or spread the learning throughout your December plans.
Explore the Christmas Lapbook Activities Bundle to find engaging activities your kindergarten students can enjoy creating, learning from, and sharing with their families!
Happy Holidays, teacher-friend!
Keep the Holiday Learning Going!
Read these posts next for more ideas to add to your winter lesson plans!
- 5 Holiday Read Alouds for the Primary Classroom
- 10 Winter Lapbook Activities Your Students Will Absolutely Love
- 5 Tips for Planning December Activities for the Primary Classroom
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