Full disclosure: this first week of December is going to be my busiest week this year. Therefore, I decided to cheat a bit for a few days and recycle some posts from last year.  I’ve done a bit of editing to make sure they remain current but otherwise they are the same.  Hopefully you still find them useful!

Let’s face it.  This month is hard.  No one – including you – is feeling very focused on academics right now.  To save everyone’s sanity, and to put smiles on all of the faces in the room, try some of these creative ideas:

• If your students are participating in an Hour of Code next week by doing the Hopscotch tutorials on the iPad, use this extension suggested by @kd0602 – design a Holiday Scene.  It’s similar to the idea of making a holiday card in Scratch.  However, since Hopscotch offers less commands to use, a bit more creative problem solving is required (such as using the text object to make the letter “o” stand in for eyes and a nose on a snowman).
• Don’t feel like doing something “techie”?  Have your students design new uses for candy canes like Ms. Trayers. (Ms. Trayers has lots of creative ideas, so check out her blog for even more!)
• Use this idea from Ian Byrd – Create a Holiday.
• Assign students to change the words of a famous holiday song (such as Jingle Bells) to reflect a character’s perspective in a book you are currently reading.
• Create holiday cards in the manner of a famous artist.  What would a Picasso card look like?  How about Van Gogh or O’Keefe?
• Do some Winter Mad Libs.
• Watch this video, and have students draw and explain their own “Rube Goldberg” holiday machines.
• Got some marbles, dominoes, and string?  Have the kids design a real “Rube Goldberg” machine that ends with a holiday message!
• Try one of the “10 Creative Spins on the Question: What do You Want for Christmas?” from Minds in Bloom.
• Enjoy some creative ideas when your students work on this free “Frosty Figurative Language” packet from Leah Chamberlin on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Here are a couple I have mentioned before, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat.

• Have your students S.C.A.M.P.E.R. the Holidays.
• Write about what you would see if you lived in a snow globe.
• Create Text Snowflakes.

Other posts in this series:

Logical Ways to Survive the Weeks Before Winter Break!
Physical Ways to Survive the Weeks Before Winter Break!
Telegenic Ways to Survive the Weeks Before Winter Break!