As winter approaches and the cold weather limits our activities we need to be creative and come up with some indoor activities. Don’t let the cold weather keep you from having fun with your classrooms! There are plenty of fun, festive activities your students will love. Here are a few of my favorites you can use with multiple age and skill levels!
Make Your Own Ornament (https://ziggityzoom.com/christmas-holiday-diy-ornament-crafts-for-kids/)
Making your own Christmas ornament is not only a great fine motor activity, but also a great gift for students to bring home to their families. One of my favorite and easiest ornament ideas is Christmas trees made out of popsicle sticks. You can purchase a pack of various colored popsicle sticks at the dollar store which is nice to give students a choice for what color tree they would like to make. You must break one of the popsicle sticks in half to use for the bottom of the tree and the trunk. You then glue each piece together to make a triangular tree. You may want to let this dry for a couple minutes before decorating or else it has a higher tendency to fall apart. Then, your students can decorate the tree with different materials such as pipecleaners, glitter, pom poms, markers, stickers etc. Be creative!
Make your own Fake Snow (https://www.makelifelovely.com/diy-snow-tutorial/#)
This time of year is perfect to create your own fake snow and have fun while doing so. Not only is this a good task to show students how to follow simple directions, but it is a great activity for those sensory seeking kiddos as well. This activity only calls for two ingredients : baking soda and shaving cream!
Ingredients: 2 lbs of baking soda & 1 can of shaving cream (optional: glitter)
Directions:
- Pour all of the baking soda into a large bowl
- Add a little bit of shaving cream at a time, mixing it into the baking soda
- Slowly keep adding shaving cream until you get the desired consistency
- Optional: you can add glitter to your mixture to make it visually appealing as well!
The consistency of this mixture leaves very little residue on your student’s hands so it won’t stick to them and make a mess. If you have any students who you are worried will eat this mixture, I modify the task by having them make it in a Ziploc bag. I then double bag it so they will not easily make a hole and get to the mixture.
Christmas/Winter Pictionary
One activity that I love to do with my students year round is an informal drawing game. As the seasons and holidays change, I tailor the game to the specific time of year. I then take these words and depending on the student’s level print out just the words or words with a simple matching picture. I then cut up the words and fold them in half. I place them in to a cup and shuffle them up. I call a student to come up and pick a word/picture. I then have them draw it on the board in front of the class and the class has to guess what the picture is. For higher level students, you can just use the word and have them be creative and draw on their own. For lower level students, I provide a simple picture or drawing of my own on the sheet for them to copy and if students in the class need a word bank of answers to guess from, I provide that to them.
Author: Courtney Gansho
