winter Archives - Teacher's Brain

Jingle All the Way to Learning: 5 Enchanting Christmas Activities for the Classroom

November 17, 2023 teachersbrain education, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips, Winter, Writing

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and it’s time to sprinkle a bit of holiday magic into your classroom with some Christmas activities for kids or holiday activities for elementary.

Christmas and the winter holidays are just around the corner, and I want to share some festive resources and activities that will turn your classroom into a winter wonderland of learning and joy!

If you are looking for Christmas activities for elementary students, you’re in the right place!

Teaching during the holiday season is a special opportunity to infuse the spirit of Christmas into your lessons while keeping the focus on education. Here are some of my favorite Christmas activities for kids!

Christmas Math and Literacy Worksheets

Are you looking for some holiday worksheets for your K-1 students? I have you covered with over 100 various types of worksheets, games, and printables that cover many kindergarten and 1st grade skills.

Holidays Around the World Escape Room

Looking for a GREAT activity for your students to help your students practice problem-solving and learn about different winter holidays with a focus on the main idea? Digital Escapes™ are a fun way to get students to learn without even realizing it. NO Printing and No Prep needed for this digital escape! Super EASY for in-person or Distance Learning.

Students will click an audio button for a short story and directions to help with their first clue. During the escape, students will be tasked with solving 4 lock clues in order to escape the room and break the spell a bad elf placed on them. There is a PDF included in this download with directions, the link to the site, an answer key, and an optional note-taking worksheet for students. This activity takes about 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

Christmas Ornament Poem (FREEBIE!)

Are you looking for a great poem to easily download, print, and add to an ornament filled with a ribbon the same size as the student? I have you covered. 🙂 These make perfect gifts for the family!

Christmas Door Decorations

Christmas classroom decorations Christmas activities for kids

Ready to have the cutest door at school for the holidays? This is a simple door or bulletin board you can create using these printables. Pair Santa’s Vacation display with student writing samples or have students add a personalized bulb to the palm tree.

Santa is gone to the beach!

Ugly Sweater Christmas Writing Activity

Christmas activities for kids writing activity ugly sweater

Are you looking for a great way to do an engaging virtual OR in-person Holiday WRITING lesson with students? I have you covered with these interactive, editable Google Slides to easily have students copy and paste movable parts to DESIGN their own Ugly Sweater. Then, they will write a narrative, persuasive, or opinion paper about ugly sweaters.

‘Tis the season to be jolly and learn together! I hope you and your students love these resources as much as I do.

Looking for more Christmas fun? Check out my post here!

The Best Winter Writing Activities For Elementary

November 26, 2021 teachersbrain Winter, Writing

Around the holidays, I usually like to try and come up with some really unique holiday or winter writing activities that will be different from the stuff that students have become used to. Adding in a variety of lessons, crafts, and activities never fails to get students excited and engaged in our writing practice.

With many teachers and students still learning virtually this year, I have been thinking about winter writing activities that students can get really engaged with whether they are learning in person or online.

This Trapped In A Snow Globe writing activity has to be my favorite this year!

Students will get to create a photo of them trapped in a snow globe and write about it. It comes with 14 background slides to choose from and 4 slides of movable parts to add. Just choose a background, palace a picture of your student “trapped”, and then add your accessories!

After that, there are 6 slides for students to brainstorm, organize thoughts, and write a story about their snow globe. What I love about this is that it is designed for distance learning so you can easily add gifs in place of photos.

You’ll also get black and white slides for students to digitally or handwrite their stories. You can choose from narrative, persuasive, or opinion writing. You’ll get 4 writing prompts to choose from or 2 pages that are left blank so you can create your own prompt.

There is also a Google Form so you can do a “Favorite Design Contest” with your students!

Step 1. Choose a background

Step 2. Add your photo or gif

Step 3. Add your accessories

Step 4. Write about it!

Afterward, you can create a slideshow with music that includes all of your students’ creations!

Another fun twist to this activity is that students can all trap the teacher! Add your photo to each of their designs and they can write about how you got trapped.

Check out the video here

What are your favorite winter writing activities? Let me know in the comments!

Teaching Winter Holidays Around The World

November 20, 2020 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips, Winter

Winter is an exciting time for kids of all ages! For teachers of young children, it’s an especially fun time in the classroom. While the students may be a little distracted by all the holiday events, winter provides a perfect opportunity to join learning and celebrations. Children can learn about holidays through listening to stories, reading, music, art, and even food.

Celebrations from around the world provide an opportunity to discuss geography and culture in a way that gets students excited.

They may see similarities between their own lives and those of children in other countries. They may even enjoy bringing elements of the winter holidays they learn about into their own celebrations!

Holiday celebrations in the classroom are another way to teach students about other cultures. For a class party, foods from other countries could be served. Students could participate in art activities using themes they’ve learned about in their world studies. (

Instead of just focusing on the American traditions they are familiar with, kids can experience the ways that other cultures celebrate with their friends and family. While increasing a connection between kids around the world, these activities will keep students learning during the holiday season!

If you need some inspiration to talk about holidays in your classroom, The Winter Holidays Around the World Journal is a perfect springboard into learning about celebrations.

On each page, students will read a short passage about a winter holiday celebration, trace key words, and draw a picture to demonstrate comprehension. There is a flag to color for each country’s page. They can also locate the country on a map or globe and color the illustrations. Teachers can also facilitate further research into the winter holiday celebrations using the Internet or other media.

Students will have a great time learning about different traditions while practicing their reading and writing skills!

If you want more holiday classroom fun, check out my Christmas freebies here!

winter holidays

Try the Digital Escape Room 1-3rd, focus is on Main Idea and Holidays Around the World!