December holiday resources are a great way for students to learn about and celebrate the season. These resources are often themed around the three most popular holidays: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. They offer a fun and engaging way for students to explore the traditions and customs associated with each holiday.
Celebrating holidays in the classroom is an excellent way to integrate holiday themes into all subjects and skill areas. Additionally, using read-aloud books (affiliate link) with follow-up activities can be a fun and engaging way to teach students with disabilities about holiday traditions.
I have designed several engaging December holiday resources, each uniquely crafted around the three major holidays. These interdisciplinary activities are both differentiated and adaptable making them perfect for use as a stand-alone or extension activity after a read-aloud or lesson on a particular holiday.
Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa December Holiday Resources
The holiday-themed activities below include a scavenger hunt, differentiated mini books, and adapted Christmas coloring pages. Additionally, there is a Christmas fun pack full of foundational skills in math and ELA work, as well as fine motor skills activities.
Scavenger Hunt
This scavenger hunt activity is a fun way to bring movement and excitement into the classroom around the holidays. Students will learn the vocabulary and elements associated with each celebration.
You can play the game in the classroom by placing the holiday symbols around the room. Alternatively, you can place the picture/word symbols on bulletin boards around the school.
The student checklists for the scavenger hunt are differentiated in three ways. For example, there is a level 1 for students who are not yet writers and need additional support. This one requires a simple, low-prep setup (cut, laminate, and velcro). You can customize this one to the number of items you want your student to find based on ability level. Your student will use the manipulatives to hold the symbol, match it to the one found, and place it on the receptacle box on their template board.
The level 2 worksheet is two pages with 8 picture/word symbols on each page and the level 3 checklist has 16 picture/word symbols on one page.
This Scavenger Hunt Activity Is Great For:
- Building a sense of community in the classroom
- Building a functional holiday vocabulary base
- Friendship building
- Socialization and communication skills
- Brain brakes
- Indoor recess activity
- Activities for clubs
- Movement/Sensory breaks
- Enrichment
- Substitute Plans
- Parent Engagement/Christmas party activities
Differentiated Mini Books
These time-saving, no-prep, print-and-go, holiday mini-books are perfect for learning the symbols of each holiday. Each mini book comes in two versions — Trace and Write. These are also great for December holidays around the world activities.
Your students can create mini-books for each holiday or they can create one mini-book featuring all three holidays. There is an extra cover page for this version. You can pick a few pages from each holiday collection to complete the inclusive booklet.
Christmas Coloring Pages
These Coloring pages are great for students on the autism spectrum (ASD) who require simple, bold outlines with ample white space to color. They also benefit kids with ADD/ADHD, and Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD). These coloring sheets are great for self-contained classrooms where students need high visual and tactile support, and they are also perfectly suited for the little hands of preschoolers.
Not only are these coloring sheets great for students with accommodations, but for the whole class, no matter the grade or ability level. Pull out all your crafting materials and mixed media to engage in a fun arts and crafts session. Your students will walk away with beautiful and unique artwork pieces.
Christmas Fun Packet – Foundational Math – ELA – Fine Motor Skills
This Christmas fun activities packet is great for December morning work or as a take-home packet for the holiday break—just, print and use it and let the learning fun begin. These ELA, math, and fine motor worksheets revolve around many Christmas vocabulary words and are aligned to the NYS Common Core State Standards.
The differentiated worksheets target different skill sets to improve foundational skills in comprehension, reading, and writing. Additionally, it targets skills in math such as counting, cardinality, and graphing. Your students will have plenty of fun educational activities themed around the Christmas holiday.
December Holiday Resource Bundle
December is such an exciting time of year in the classroom with the diverse traditions celebrated by all of our students. As teachers, we are always searching for time-saving, affordable, and highly engaging activities and materials for our exceptional kiddos.
For this reason, I’ve put together a bundle of the above resources to help balance the workload and ease the pressure of keeping up with the demands of the season.
These Activities Are Great For:
- Independent desk work
- Small group work
- One-to-one instruction
- Workstations
- Arts and Crafts centers
- Cool down and Calm areas
- Literacy centers
- Fine motor centers
- Morning work
- Homework
- Early and fast finishers
- Take home packet
- Enrichment and extension activities
- Substitute plans
- Parent Engagement
- Holiday parties
- After school activities
Bundle Benefits:
- Standards-aligned and curriculum-aligned activities to CCSS (math and ELA activities covering foundational skills) and NYSSEL (scavenger hunt to promote socialization and positive behaviors in school).
- Time-saving and fun educational activities for learning about the holidays and the elements and symbols associated with them
- Differentiated tracing and writing activities with clear, bold pictures and text for early learners, English language learners, students with disabilities, and students on the autism spectrum.
- Differentiated Coloring Worksheets that are great for students with sensory processing challenges, but also great for everyone in the classroom. These coloring pages can be used with mixed media to create unique art pieces, so everyone can engage and participate in an art session.
This is a best-value bundle with differentiated activities covering the three most popular holidays celebrated in the classrooms. The activities are stand-alone and can also complement any lesson or unit in your curriculum. This is a wonderful packet that touches on many subject areas and domains for students with a point of entry for all.
Additional Resources and Materials
If you are looking for more winter or December activities, you may like this Winter Activities Reading Comprehension Lesson Plan with a Fun Read Aloud. The TPT website is a free website for everyone. There are many free resources that you can download. Additionally, when you purchase an item, and leave feedback, you earn points that you can use to lower the cost of future purchases.
Lastly, I’d like to invite you to join the vortex2learning club and have exclusive access to the freebie library resources. You will find a growing collection of educational lessons, activities, printables, worksheets, workbooks and so much more. You will be given a password that will allow you access at any time.
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