5 Christmas Activities for Kindergarten (Free Elf Game!)

The holiday season is an especially crazy time of year…especially for kindergarten students! I don’t know about you but I’m always looking for some fun educational activities to work on fine motor, math skills, cvc words and letter recognition while getting into the holiday spirit. It can be a FINE LINE between fun and learning when using Christmas activities and I’m here to help you draw the line in the sand (or the salt tray!)

Let’s check out 5 fun Christmas activities including lots of fun Christmas printables for kindergarten and a FREE sneaky elf number recognition activity below!!

christmas printables for kindergarten


Christmas Activities for December in Kindergarten

Research shows that the best way for young children to continue learning through the holiday season is to keep your classroom schedule and lesson plans consistent as other times of the year even though December can be chaotic. This is what I always did, just with some added festive season flair!

I keep my entire schedule the same but add fun games and printables into morning work, math and literacy activities. This is why I am a huge fan of themed activities in the classroom. Once you teach your students how to complete certain activities in your room, then the learning process is not as steep when you change out an activity because they are used to the routine and process.

For example, let’s look at the Christmas activities you can try in your kindergarten classroom below and I will show you exactly what I mea with morning tubs.

5 christmas printables for kindergarten


1. 
December Morning Work for Kindergarten

Having themed morning work is a great way to incorporate the Christmas and holiday season into your kinder classroom. If you’ve read my blog before, you know how important hands-on morning work is to me to keep young minds engaged. This is why December Morning Tubs are life-changing during the Christmas season! December Morning Tubs are the perfect way to have students complete some engaging activities all at their different levels while having some Christmas fun!

The December Morning Tubs are meant to be easily differentiated for all students’ needs.

Here are some of the activities included:

✔️ Tracing capital and lowercase letters

✔️ salt tray writing

✔️ CVC word building

​✔️ number tracing

​✔️ snowman button ten frames

​✔️ color by number cards

​✔️ counting Christmas cookies

✔️ Christmas tree playdough mats

​✔️ directed drawing activity

​✔️ hot cocoa roll and cover

​✔️ count and clip cards

​✔️ finish the shape

​✔️ real vs. nonsense word sort

In case you need ideas of exactly HOW to implement, store and rotate morning tubs in your classroom, there is a Facebook group full of thousands of educators and parents that you can join who are all using morning tubs! Morning tubs will give you LESS planning and MORE time on your hands! You can check out the Morning Tubs for the Entire Year right HERE (you know-to keep your routine the same!)

December hands on morning work kindergarten

2. Christmas Addition Worksheets

Next up, let’s talk about incorporating some themed worksheets during math time that have a fun Christmas theme. Christmas Add and Cover Mats are the perfect addition for math centers or even for early finishers. This is a fun way for kindergarten children to practice adding numbers 1-10 in a nonconventional way. Remember-kindergartners do best when their little hands stay busy! 

These Christmas math worksheets are a cute idea because they can be laminated to use over each year and include different themed mats for December such as: a bell, wreath, reindeer, Santa, stocking, ornament, Christmas tree and present. All you need is math counting cubes that measure approximately 1 inch like these. 

Students simply add the amount together and put the correct color cube on the answer to make an adorable holiday themed picture. It’s simple to see if they may have gotten a problem wrong because the picture would turn out wrong so it’s great for self-checking also!

christmas math kindergarten printable

3. Christmas Fine Motor Activities

Next up are some good old fashioned fine motor activities perfect for the month of December. Here are 2 different fine motor activities to check out:

🎄 Christmas Dabbing Pages:

 These dabbing pages will bring lots of fun fine motor and holiday delight to your kindergarten classroom. All you need are q-tips, ink pads or paint. Put students in small groups, pass out the worksheets and let them dab their q-tip and trace the holiday shape on the page. The holiday word is also typed on the paper so they can see the corresponding vocabulary word as they are working, helping to work on literacy skills.

Check out some ways to use Christmas Dabbing Pages in your Kindergarten classroom:

1. Partner Game: Have each student pick a color ink pad or paint to use. Provide each pair with a six-sided die. Students will take turns rolling and dabbing that many dots. The player who has dabbed the most dots when there are none left is the winner!

2. Patterning: Have students complete the dabbing in a pattern. For example, try an ABC pattern of orange, yellow, purple.

3. Sentence Practice: Have students write a sentence about their word when finished dabbing and trade papers with a friend to read each others.

fine motor christmas printable kindergarten

🎄 Christmas Fine Motor Activity Pages:

Next up are some more interactive worksheets that continue to focus on fine motor skills! There are so many ways that you can incorporate fine motor activities into the Christmas season, especially with these Christmas Fine Motor Activity Pages

These Christmas Fine Motor Activities include themed printables and activities that need to be laminated that work on different fine motor skills such as:

1. Paper tearing

2. Cutting activities

3. Line tracing

4. Tweezing/Counting

5. Stickers/Gluing

6. Trace and Cut

7. Hole punching

8. Letter writing

9. Linking

10. Pinning

These are perfect to use during Christmas time for morning tubs, centers, small groups and more! This is also included in the Fine Motor Activity Bundle, which you can use in your preschool or kindergarten classroom all year round!

christmas fine motor activities kindergarten

4. No-Prep Printable Worksheets for December in Kindergarten

Sometimes we might be crazy to think we will actually have time for hands-on activities in the month December so I always liked to have some no-prep printable worksheets ready to go. This makes it easy to have available for a substitute when you are absent due to sickness during the winter months or to use before your class Christmas party. 

These NO-PREP Christmas Printables for kindergarten are perfect for sneaking in 30 different skills during this crazy time of the year! In this pack you will find worksheets for:

rhyming

letter sounds

CVC words

syllables

writing

fine motor

number tracing

patterns

ten frames

missing numbers

1:1 correspondence

addition within 5

subtraction within 5

reading simple sentences

december no prep printable worksheets kindergarten


5.
 FREE Christmas Printable for Kindergarten: Sneaky Elf Number Recognition

Last but not least, let’s look at another adorable math activity for younger children during the holiday season. I think all kids love the mystery of the sneaky elf at this time of year so why not incorporate him into math also? The purpose of this FREE Sneaky Elf Game is to hide the elf behind a number (0-30), and then have the students guess where the elf is by naming the number. It’s great for number recognition 0-30 practice, especially for those tricky teens!

​This game is super low prep and once you have it made you can use it year after year. I would suggest having a parent volunteer cut it out and laminate it for you.

We always played the game as a whole group first using a pocket chart when gathered at the carpet. Then, when I was confident students knew how to play, I added it into weekly math center rotations or small groups. It also makes a wonderful early finisher activity.

Grab your FREE Sneaky Elf Game HERE!

free Christmas activity for kindergarten


Christmas Activities for Kindergarten

Remember, in order to have a successful holiday season during the month of December keep your classroom routine CONSISTENT while adding in some festive fun using the 5 Christmas activities above. This will make things less likely for too much chaos!

You might also want to check out: 

TIPS FOR CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT DURING THE HOLIDAYS

Will you be using any of these Christmas Printables and Activities in your Kindergarten Classroom this December?

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