It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As the holiday season approaches, it can be a challenge for teachers to keep students engaged and learning while still incorporating the festive spirit of the season. To help out, I’ve compiled a list of 6 fun and educational Christmas activities for early finishers that will keep your third and fourth-grade speed demons busy while the rest of the class catches up. From math to reading, I’ve got you covered!
Holiday Book Challenge
The holiday season is a great time to incorporate some festive reading into the classroom. Gather all your holiday-themed books and borrow a few from the library and set up a special Book Challenge Station. Challenge your early finishers to read as many of the books as possible. They can even keep a tracking sheet where they write the name of the book and create their own “quiz” questions to go with the book.
Create Holiday Crafts, Cards, and Ornaments
Set up a holiday-themed craft station with materials for students to create their own snowflakes, Christmas cards, holiday ornaments, or Channuka crafts. These Christmas activities for early finishers is a great way to get those creative juices flowing and allow students to share the traditions from their own cultural holiday celebration with their classmates.
Holiday Writing Prompts
Set up a simple writing station and stock it with prompts centered around Christmas themes. The possibilities are endless, and it’s a great way to keep them engaged while practicing writing skills. Here are a few holiday prompts to get you started:
- Write about your favorite Christmas/Channuka/Kwanza present.
- If you could spend the holiday break with anyone, who would it be and why?
- If you had your own team of reindeer, what would you name them and why?
- Describe how to build a snowman to someone who has never seen snow.
- Pretend you are a snowflake, and describe your journey to from the sky to the ground.
- If you could be in any holiday movie, which one would you choose and why?
Holiday Math Glyphs
Keep those math skills sharp with these Christmas Tree Glyphs or Gingerbread House Glyphs. Students get to enjoy the magic of Christmas while they choose their answer to class-building questions such as “Do you prefer your hot chocolate with or without marshmallows?” and then solve a math problem. The answer to the math problems will provide students with directions for adding certain types and numbers of decorations to their Christmas tree or gingerbread house craft. These make for engaging Christmas activities for early finishers that keep kids focused and having fun while reinforcing math concepts of your choice with over 10 skills to choose from.
Christmas Task Card Challenge
Task cards make quick and easy Christmas activities for early finishers because they can work on several or just one depending on how much time they have available. Print off several sets of Christmas math task cards or Christmas ELA task cards and let students choose a topic they are interested in. Don’t forget to include recording sheets, so students can keep track of which cards they have completed and which ones they can return to the next time they have a few extra minutes. Here is a free set of Christmas-themed addition and subtraction task cards to get you started!
Don’t forget to stuff your own stocking with Christmas-themed activities for a variety of skills. The Christmas Math Task Cards and Christmas ELA Task Cards collections are sure to have just the skill you’re looking for!
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Christmas Geography
Get your students to learn about the different holiday traditions around the world with a basic geography lesson. These Christmas activities for early finishers makes a great technology station. Bookmark a few teacher-approved research sites and let students travel virtually to learn about different Christmas traditions such as St. Nicholas Day in Germany, Las Posadas in Mexico, and Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. Once they’ve learned about the different traditions, have the students create a “passport” page and design a stamp that demonstrates something they learned about that country’s tradition.
There you have it! I hope you found one or two Christmas activities for early finishers that will keep your busy little elves engaged and actively learning while the rest of the class catches up. Happy Holidays!