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Christmas Theme


There are so many Christmas ideas and activities to choose from and I have tried many but in this post, I will include many of the ones that have worked well in our classroom. This candy cane fishing game is challenging but the children enjoy it and it's great for teaching balance, fine motor skills and concentration. I tie a single candy cane to a dowel rod and then place the remaining candy canes in a jar so they are standing up. Students use the candy cane fishing rod and try to collect as many candy canes as they can.
 A great STEAM activity is to lay out green Legos and green popsicle sticks and give the students a challenge to create a tree.
 Another fine motor activity is to place Velcro dots both on a Christmas tree and also on the back of several buttons. Students place the buttons on the tree as ornaments and then take the buttons off.
I make large green triangle trees and then divide them into eight strips, writing a numeral 1-8 on each strip.  Students place the tree together by placing the numerals in order.
We use paint sample cards from a local store and practice cutting on the lines. We cut them several times throughout the year and I save the pieces for collage art.  One of the collage art pieces we make is a Christmas tree. I give each student a piece of paper with a tree drawn on it and then students cut pieces of green paper and glue them onto their tree.
We practice writing our names and letters in a sand box using a wrapped candy cane as the writing instrument.
 A collection of bells and several color coded toilet paper tubes work great for sorting and matching.  I have the children use tweezers to pick up and sort the bells to help strengthen their hand muscles.
 Write a variety of letters or numerals on a paper tree and also on some dot stickers. Students find and peel off a dot sticker and place it on the matching letter or numeral on the paper.
 We use green playdough and cookie cutters and create Christmas creations and then we use beads to decorate them.  Before putting the playdough away, I have the students find and pull the beads out of the dough.
 Pom Poms can also be used to make and match patterns or create their own Christmas trees.

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