‘It’s’ nearly here and we know as teachers how hard it is to get through the final weeks of the Autumn term, its cold, dark and wet and you are exhausted be because of grotto duty at the Christmas Fair, sorting out yet again who gets the toy from the cracker at Christmas lunch or going to yet another Christmas production practice! It leaves gaps in our day which we may not also know how to fill. Which is why we are offering you a range of stocking fillers to help you fill those moments!
Busy things offer a range of digital content that you can use to get that much-needed magical moment of peace within in your class. From designing your own digital Christmas card, decorating your own tree (perfect for fine motor control in the EYFS) and it’s never too late to write a letter to Santa
Or if you want to explore symmetry you can making your own snowflakes, using this fun interactive tool.
The j2e Tool suite has a Christmas winter wonderland tab which you can use to access a bumper packed bag of festive treats, why not try playing a game of digital noughts and crosses festively named ‘Shepard’s and wise men”, play a word matching game or create your own digital nativity scene.
Did you know that all of these resources are made with the powerful j2e5 application? If you select the edit button on each activity you can see how the activity was made and then ask your students to edit the activity )
Many J2e tools also have has a Christmas makeover:
J2data: Branch has a Christmas set of resources to sort – elves, reindeer, gingerbread men etc. – plus a Christmas background. And the clothes category are winter clothes.
J2Pictogram: has a set of high-quality Christmas clip art images to use.
JIT: Both Write and Paint have had a festive make over, with a Christmas background in Write and Paint having high-quality Christmas clip art images to use.
J2code: Visual has a reindeer instead of the usual penguin sprite (And now with the new update to search via safe search you find more Christmas sprites with ease)
J2e also offers analogue activities such as making yummy festive biscuits, remember to go back every day to open the advent calendar to see the latest activity.
Your students don’t need to be visited by the Ghost of Christmas past to see what has happened at Christmas in the past, just let them search The Guardian and The Observer archives, the archives go all the way back to 1791 and offer a window into celebrations from years gone by, great for your students to research and compare modern traditions with those in the past.
Widgit has 3 ready made activity packs you can download for Christmas, which can be found in the activities area of the Widgit resource.
Christmas Cards: 3 ready to print and fold Christmas card designs Provided in the pack is a full colour card for each of 3 designs. To make it more personal, each design also has a 'colour your own' version. Each card features Widgit Symbols and pictures and a symbolised greeting message on the front.
Christmas Pack: Worksheets and activities from the Symbols Inclusion Project, This pack contains a range of 21 activities based around the secular aspects of Christmas, suitable for children of different ages and abilities. The more difficult activities are numbered towards the end of the list. included in the pack is interesting German folklore story about why we put tinsel on a Christmas tree.
Nativity Pack: Worksheets and activities from the Symbols Inclusion Project, 12 Nativity and Christmas themed activities and stories: colouring, word search, letters to Santa.
There are also ready made packs for St Lucia (the Swedish Festival of Light) and Hanukkah,These resources are for whole class work, small groups and independent workers. There are symbol - supported stories, text only stories, information sheets, recipes, crosswords, word searches and many more.
Audio Network has over 60,000 professionally produced tracks that can be search by keyword or mood. Why not search for ‘festive’, ‘jolly’ or ‘Christmas’. You can use them in lessons, performances and for videos you create in school – without breaking any copyright rules! Here are my 5 top picks from the Christmas jukebox!
Swingle bells: who needs the Michael Buble Christmas album? When you have this up-tempo Christmas classic. cocktail swing jazz with crooning male vocal.
Swing Merry Gentlemen:Jazz trio arrangement of 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'
The Holly and the Ivy: Traditional English Christmas carol played by brass band
Rockin' Wizards: A very familiar sounding glam rock tune
Warm And Toastie: Turn on an open fire video on the IWB, get out the marshmallows and put on this warm and cosy song.
We also have Espresso Faiths to look how Christmas is celebrated why not compare this with how different communities celebrate festivals and ask your students to explore the common links that they can see in the religious celebrations?
Remember we also have this Blog post about using Christmas media within school, However, you fill the last weeks of the school year we at the London Grid for Learning want to give you a massive round of applause and thanks for all of your hard work and support this year and we hope you have a restful break and are ready for an exciting 2019! Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!
