Making Christmas Count- Creating Holiday Learning Experiences

Christmas. It's the most wonderful time of the year in my world. Anticipating the season is a huge part of the wonder and appreciation.  So I make Christmas really count! In teaching, you get the most bang for your buck when you connect new concepts to something meaningful for your students. It doesn't get any easier than connecting Christmas with kids. I take full advantage of this anticipation to help my students learn about celebrating in our culture, the value of giving over receiving, literacy and math in creating holiday projects, and how to measure and budget our time in preparation for our party. (It's never too early to teach students how to plan!)

Introducing... my take on a school holiday version of the Advent calendar called the Christmas Countdown! I got the idea of using a shoe organizer to hold holiday symbols from Pinterest. I was looking for an easy way to teach passage of time and numerical concepts, expand their understanding of seasonal symbols, and connect our learning activities to our Christmas celebration at school and this totally fit the bill.
Here are the fun and easy steps:
1) I printed off some festive looking number cards and attached them to the pockets of a cheap shoe organizer I bought at Wal-Mart. I made sure to count out how many days until our Christmas party so that we are able to open one pocket for each day leading up until then.  It is a countdown of sorts and another way to teach passage of time, which can be a difficult concept for young kiddos.
2) I found some cool mini-Christmas vocabulary picture cards (great literacy connection), cut them apart, put two or three cards with related ideas in each pocket, and stuffed it with tissue paper so that we can "unwrap" each day's symbol(s). This serves as our focus for learning and will be tied to our projects and activities throughout the month. After the symbol is viewed and discussed, I tape the pictures to the outside of the pocket for the students to continue to enjoy and to help us review.

Found on Teachers Pay
Teachers- Clever Classroom

3) Whenever possible, I made sure to include some sort of hands-on activity or sensory experience that the students could be involved in to make the symbol come to life and become a meaningful part of anticipating our celebration with our families later in the month.
For example, on the day we unwrapped the 'bell'  and 'caroling' card, all the students were given jingle bells to accompany our Christmas songs as we practiced singing.  Then I was able to explain how we were going to be sharing our holiday joy with the community when we go Christmas caroling around town. It's a FABULOUS THING to be able to guide four and five year olds in how to be good citizens that show appreciation for others in a holiday service project! One of our stops will be City Hall and most of my students have never been there before. They had no idea what the purpose of such a place was, so this provides a wonderful opportunity to build background knowledge of city government. We also discuss the  characteristics of a good performer and how to dress for the part. There's almost no end to all of the ways an experience like this helps to educate well-rounded students! Our songs will be shared again with our families in a short program in the classroom as part of our Christmas party.

I'm flooded with excitement and fulfillment to be able to share my favorite holiday as the foundation for some awesome learning experiences for my students. Creativity and Christmas just kind of go hand-in-hand in my book. Whether you are a teacher celebrating with your students, or interested in helping your own little ones expand their horizons of the season, I highly recommend using a Christmas countdown or Advent calendar. Make Christmas count! Just look for a great idea to ADAPT, commit to EXECUTE your plan  as part of your daily routine, and ENJOY the good cheer shared with others in your celebration!