It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and that means most of our school children hit the epitome of excitable and hyperactive when December arrives. Whilst teachers are undeniably ready for the Christmas holidays, the children are tired too and ready for their break – combine this with Christmas cheer, and it can be difficult to keep your students engaged right until the final December bell. So let’s take advantage of the Christmas season, and use it to draw the children back into their lessons with some Christmas teaching ideas, allowing them to combine academic progress with Christmas celebrations. 

The Global Classroom

We all know that this Christmas will be different to every year we’ve had, and we know that our classrooms will be celebrating this festive season differently too. Connecting our students to ideas and experiences outside of the physical classroom is challenging at the moment, so why not share The Global Classroom with your students this Christmas. 

As the largest digital classroom in the world, The Global Classroom is a unique charity that endeavours to connect children from all over the world with each other, as well as connecting them with world leading experts across film, music, conservation, environment and so much more. 

There are a variety of classes that you and your school can get involved with this December, from the Global Generations class which focuses on social discussions and skills to the One Global Body class which discusses the importance of our physical and mental wellbeing. 

Five classes have already taken place this year, so why not include some creative teaching activities into your December planning and select your favourite class to share with your students. All classes are available on the Global Classroom website as well as their The Global Classroom Youtube channel. 

The classes focus on full-rounded learning, with the charity aiming to promote resilience, independence, exploration, reflection and values. The charity’s incredible partnerships span across the globe, from Disney to the Smithsonian Institute and UNICEF, so sharing one of their classes with your students would be an incredible Christmas gift, especially as our Global Generations class includes an Olaf drawing tutorial to really get you into the festive spirit.

Celebrate Christmas Traditions with Flipgrid

Continuing with the theme of connecting your children to the world outside the classroom, Christmas is the perfect time to develop the cultural awareness of your students. 

Festive traditions vary between continent, country and family, so it’s the perfect opportunity to teach your class about the beauty of difference. You could just teach this with a PowerPoint, but one of our creative teaching activities that we recommend instead is Flipgrid. 

Flipgrid is a free platform designed for the education sector to share videos with each other in order to create a digital community that shares with one another. It’s a great way to connect with classrooms around the world without trying to match up timezones or worrying about faulty tech. 

The platform works by asking questions that receive video responses – you could do this just for your class, and focus on their family traditions. Alternatively, you could open this up to the global community and receive video responses from all over the world to create an authentic learning experience for your students.

Move and Shake – Christmas Style

If you teach younger students, then this should definitely be included in your Christmas teaching activities. 

Younger children always have so much energy anyway, but it is definitely amplified at Christmas time and it can cause distractions when they’re stuck behind a desk. So why not get them up out of their chairs and grooving to some festive tunes! 

YouTube is your best friend for this activity – remember Just Dance, the dancing WII game? Well all of their routines are available for free on YouTube! Simply search ‘Just Dance Christmas’ and decide for yourself, or let the students pick. The videos only last 2-5 minutes, but it’s sure to make your class smile, and help them burn off some energy too!

Move and Shake can be done just behind your desks, or can be moved into a large space in your school (like an assembly hall!) depending on how it fits into your timetable. It’s best to do this activity in the morning to get all the energy harnessed for a full day of learning, and to wake up any students who are feeling a little groggy. 

Using Christmas Examples

Students love themed lessons, so try slipping Christmas examples into your lesson wherever you can. If you’re teaching maths, why not have all of the worded problems feature Christmas language. Division questions could be Santa sharing presents, whilst multiplication questions could feature a decoration shopping trip. 

You can also build this into your other subjects too – there are some amazing descriptive writing opportunities for all ages when you use the Christmas scene. Whether you’re using visual image stimul, or asking students to use their imaginations, developing writing structure and technique through Christmas scene descriptions is a fantastic way to blend christmas teaching ideas with student progress. 

Class Advent Calendar

You might already have one of these in action, but if not, it’s not too late to introduce one – make it a 12 Days of Christmas tracker instead. Instead of counting down with chocolate, you can count down to Christmas using activities, tasks and challenges. 

Include a blend of holistic challenges, such as ‘Give someone a compliment today’, with academic activities like ‘use a brand new word in your writing today’. These creative teaching activities allow you to provide a well rounded learning experience for your students, whilst simultaneously introducing spontaneity and festive cheer into your classroom. 

Alternatively, during a Religious Education or PSHE lesson, why not get your students to create their own advent calendars that focus on morals and wellbeing, with both physical and mental considerations. 

All of these Christmas teaching ideas will provide fantastic creative learning activities that will help your students celebrate Christmas inside the classroom whilst developing themselves along the way.

Why not check out if one of our classes can be used as a Christmas teaching activity today?