It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and soon, your child will be out of school for a couple of weeks. Keep their minds stimulated and their bodies exercising by doing these 12 fun and festive activities with them:
#1. Reindeer [Math] Games – Sorting by Color and Size
Directions:
- Print out this FREE Reindeer Math Game Printable (Courtesy of The Educator’s Spin On It). (Note: Make sure you print in color.)
- Depending on your child’s age, have either your child or yourself cut out the pictures of the reindeer.
- Lay out one one red scarf and one green scarf. (Note: If you don’t have scarves, you can lay out one red piece of paper and one green piece of paper.)
- Have your child color sort the reindeers by placing the red reindeers on the red scarf and the green reindeers on the green scarf.
- Now have your child sort the red reindeers by size from largest to smallest and the green reindeers by size from largest to smallest.
#2. Rudolph and Reindeer Friends Sing-a-Long
Directions:
- Decide which lucky child will get to be Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer and give him or her a red light up nose.
- Give the rest of the children jingle bells. (Note: We used a giant decoration of bells, but even jingle bell necklaces would work.)
- Have “Rudolph” lead the way and the rest of the reindeer follow behind with their jingle bells around the house/daycare/school while they sing “Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer.”
#3. Do You Want To Build A Snowman?
Directions: Take apart the Melissa and Doug Snowman Stacker and have your child build their very own snowman.
#4. N-O-E-L Run
Directions:
- Set up four cones around the house/daycare/school.
- Depending on your child’s age, have them or yourself write the letter N on one post it note, O on another, E on another, and L on another.
- Stick one post-it note to each cone.
- Ask your child to run to a certain letter. (Note: If your child is a bit older, use advanced questions, like “Run to the letter that makes the sound “nnnn” or “Run to the first letter of the word ‘Nuts.'”
- Repeat #4 for all of the letters.
- Depending on your child’s age, either have them use the cones to spell the word “Noel” or help them spell it by sounding out each letter to form the word.
#5. Chimney Crawl
Directions: Have your child pretend to be Santa Claus sliding down a chimney by putting a Santa hat on and then having them crawl through a tent tunnel.
#6. Nutcracker Dance
Directions: Dress up your girls in tutus, turn on the song “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker, and let your little ballerinas dance their hearts out.
#7. Wrapping Presents
Directions: Save your leftover Christmas wrapping paper and give it to your child to wrap “presents” with. (Tip: Kids LOVE to wrap stuff up, so if you are looking for an activity to keep your child occupied while you get something done, this one is great!)
#8. Counting Gifts – More, Less, and the Same
Directions:
- Set up one stuffed animal one one side of the table and another stuffed animal on the other side.
- Arrange small Christmas present boxes (I got mine from the Dollar Store, but these are pretty cute) on the table.
- Place presents in front of each of the stuffed animals, but give more presents to one of the stuffed animals.
- Have your child count how many presents each stuffed animal has.
- Then ask your child to point to the stuffed animal that has more presents.
- Then ask your child to point to the stuffed animal that has less presents.
- Now place the same amount of presents in front of each of the stuffed animals.
- Have your child count how many presents each stuffed animal has.
- Then ask your child if the stuffed animals have the same amount.
#9. The Nativity Story
Directions: Read a simple story of the birth of Jesus to your child. (Baby Jesus Board Book is the one I used.) After the book is over, use the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Christmas Story Set to have your child act out the story and answer questions. (ex. Ask your child to hold the mother of Jesus and ask them what her name is.)
#10. Candy Cane Letters
Directions: Provide your child with a box of candy canes and have them form letters (or even words) using candy canes.
#11. Christmas Colored M&M Pattern
Directions:
- Cut out the bottom of an egg carton.
- Pour red and green M&Ms into a small bowl.
- Have your child create a red and green pattern. (Note: For younger children, do the first row for them and then have your child copy it for the rest of the rows.)
#12. Play-Doh Christmas Cookies
Directions: Provide your child with plastic Christmas cookie cutters and let them use them to pretend to make Christmas cookies.
For Christmas arts and crafts projects for kids, please click here.