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Christmas activity inspiration!

Guest

By Guest
in Reception: Observation, Assessment and Planning

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Guest

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Hi all,

I work in a Reception class and looking for something to get my children inspired to do lots of activities that is Christmas related.

 

Had the idea of finding a letter from Santa saying that he has lost a reindeer and then to plan some activities - make some lost posters, draw what they think reindeer looks like, research reindeers, write to santa, etc.

 

Anyone know of any good books that would tie in with this?

Or any other ideas that you have done before that really got the class excited and motivated linked with Christmas?

 

Thanks!!!

 

Ps - I have also got a observation with the head so need a whole class lesson to do linked with this!

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Children love writing letters to Santa. Have lots of Argos and Early Learning catalogues for them to look at and letter paper to write on. You need a special post box for them to post their letters. We find every year it is the one thing guaranteed to get the children writing, especially the boys!

We then put all the letters in a big envelope and ask the children to tell us Santa's address to write on the front.

 

We usually have a Santa's Workshop - tables set out with small squares of wrapping paper, bows, old xmas cards, glitter, sparkly pens and paint etc ... We have a few elves hats (from the pound shop) for children to get creative.

 

The role play area is set up as a bedroom on Christmas Eve - soft mats, blankets, pillows, teddies, pajamas, bedtime stories, santa costumes, stockings to hang up, a sack with pretend presents.

 

We have cardboard boxes for children to paint and turn into Santa's sleigh - as well as reindeer headbands (they LOVE this!) and sleigh bells to shake.

 

We have a countdown to Christmas - How many sleeps till Christmas? - with numbers on stockings on washing line. Take one off each day and count how many are left.

 

It's such fun - I'm excited just thinking about it! The problem is not motivating them but trying not to let them get too excited :D

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AnonyMouse_1195 15+ Years

AnonyMouse_1195

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If you go to FSF Articles on the bar at the top of the page and click on it, then click on Activity Support, you will find an article about Christmas by Juliet Mickelbrugh which has lots of ideas. Then If you scroll down to the bottom of the list of articles you will find a whole drama plan (Santa Drama) for a Reception Class! with planning and resources which my help you. Sorry not to be able to do a link but I find it very laborious on my ipad.

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My lovely other half made me an MDF sleigh a few years ago. Each year I get a letter from Santa saying he needs help to wrap the presents. We build up to this with work on 2D and 3D shapes. Mums donate boxes, pringles cylinders etc and cheap wrapping paper. Kids write to Santa promising to help. Loads of fine motor wrapping presents. Loads of writing To and from labels. We put in black bags in tens and count.... Santa wants 100, socount in tens and label black bags.

 

Then we extend to making own repeating pattern Xmas wrap.

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I usually have a letter or phone all from Santa saying he has a cold and is really tired and can they help. We then use this as a starting point to talk about how we can help and we usually end up with a santas workshop in the classroom with presents to wrap and gift tags to make. I get lots of Maths out of this as we weigh parcels wrapped and put them in order. And we deliver cards and letters around the classroom. This year we are going one better, I have organised a steam train ride and the children don't know but they will come across an asleep Santa at the station and he is going to ask them for help himself when they wake him up. My TA s hubby is very am dram and will go to town with the role. I can't wait!

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AnonyMouse_79 15+ Years

AnonyMouse_79

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I usually have a letter or phone all from Santa saying he has a cold and is really tired and can they help. We then use this as a starting point to talk about how we can help and we usually end up with a santas workshop in the classroom with presents to wrap and gift tags to make. I get lots of Maths out of this as we weigh parcels wrapped and put them in order. And we deliver cards and letters around the classroom. This year we are going one better, I have organised a steam train ride and the children don't know but they will come across an asleep Santa at the station and he is going to ask them for help himself when they wake him up. My TA s hubby is very am dram and will go to town with the role. I can't wait!

 

Helen, beat me to it but can I come???

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Did a whole load of work on a bag of carrots with reception class and a letter from Santa. It started being maths based and with childrens ideas ended up being the whole of Christmas based on the reindeers. Not sure how to add an attachment with this new forum-sorry

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Guest tinkerbell

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Biccy that sounds like fun...I have just started the Nativity story with mine and they are very interested in the houses in Nazareth being flat roofed.I told them they were made of mud brick and away we went ,onto straw bailed houses,people living in cardboard boxes ,some live in flats .....it looks like 'houses' or 'homes 'will be our spin off!

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I'm struggling to find how to attach a file. I've down loaded the 'postguide' document but it aint helping!!!

To

attach a document of any sort (MS Word, spreadsheet, image etc.) to your post, scroll down past the content dialogue box until you see the following:

??????help

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If you go to More reply options and then scroll down you should see a box which says browse. Click on that and search your computer for the file, click on that and it appears in the box, then attach file. (I think!)

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Super thank you for all the lovely ideas - we have received our letter from Santa about his lost reindeer and we have very excitely made posters today. My children went home so excited about it yesterday that I had several parents come in this morning asking about it as they have been instructed to look out for reindeers and if they see one they must tell Miss Morris straight away!

I love the idea of sorting the carrots out - I think they would really enjoy that.

We are also going to make some reindeer food for Santa following a special recipe in the hope that the santa will find his reindeer.

 

We have managed to get most of the school swept up in this as well as the children were very keen to inform each class of the sad news of the lost reindeer and wrote each class a letter informing them!

 

I am looking forward to seeing where the children take it too next!

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I love the activity Biccy, My husband saw it in the printer this evening and said, how can they work out how many carrots they need, we all they know is Prancer likes carrots!!! Some men take things toooooo far.

 

Tell him Prancer had all the carrots that were left over from the sack when all the other reindeer had taken what they wanted. They came up with a list of options for Donner who doesn't like carrots.

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AnonyMouse_19782 12 Years

AnonyMouse_19782

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Played the reindeer game twice now, the children are loving it, we adapt it to suit some less mathematically confident children, so they find long carrots or short carrots, twisted carrots etc. or they name how many carrots they would like to give a reindeer. They have been very engaged and do it is as a whole group activity - about 12 of them. Will do individuals now that they know how to play the game.

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AnonyMouse_26037 12 Years

AnonyMouse_26037

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Inspired by Biccy's carrots (!) I'm thinking of a whole series of 'Santa has a problem' letters to support our maths work over the next couple of weeks. This week our focus is characteristics/properties/names of shapes so I'm thinking our first letter will be that the labels have fallen off the reindeer presents and Santa needs help to sort out which boxes/presents for the reindeer. Dasher has a triangle shaped one, Dancer has one with 4 corners etc. I'm planning to do some AFL at the start of the week so can differentiate the letters - some of mine will definitely be ready for cubes etc.

 

I'm going to use the Rod Campbell 'Dear Santa' book too then we can do lots of present wrapping/describing etc. My objective this week is writing simple words/captions and I think this book lends itself to this - we can choose our own presents and describe them.

 

I'm thinking of doing the carrot one next week and adding a line 'Mrs Claus likes carrot soup' which we can then make (as long as I can find a microwave soup recipe - we don't have a hob at school :( )

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I too was inspired by biccy's carrots and used the idea for my Maths observation last week and got outstanding thank you! I left the bag of carrots out and the laminates that I made to go with and had lots of ci play from the activity too. Many thanks!!

Deb

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