Revising over the Christmas holidays doesn’t just have to be for humbugs!
Not only can the holiday period be an invaluable time to review coursework and get ready for the new year, but the merry season also presents opportunities to incorporate festive ideas into your lesson plans!
As we said in a previous blog, keeping students engaged is the key to every successful lesson - and what better way to keep students engaged than to link their learning to the festivities around them?
Channelling our inner Santa, we’ve come up with a range of activities suitable for different age groups which you can use in your next lesson.
Xmas Ideas for Key Stage One Students
The BBC have come up with a wonderful list of Christmas resources, most notably complementing the Key Stage 1 dance curriculum combined with literacy and storytelling. Dance is a great way to integrate and introduce a multidisciplinary approach to your lessons, especially as it encourages active participation. As an aside, some science teachers have even incorporated dance to solidify students’ understanding of coastal geology!
Even if your students really need to buckle down and consolidate their Maths skills, something as simple as a worksheet with a Christmas theme or a word problem that embeds a relevant holiday scenario can engage learners. The Mathematics shed is a great trove of free resources, and even has a free holiday worksheet PDF for younger learners!
Although not all of their resources are free, Scholastic’s bank of Christmas-themed lesson plans and worksheets are hard to miss! I especially like the advent calendar activities which combine art and literacy for EYFS and KS1 learners.
Key Stage Two Students
If you’re planning a literacy lesson, why not get your student to review Christmas vocabulary? Develop their writing skills by crafting a Christmas themed poem or planning a recount piece sharing their family traditions. You could even embed Religious Studies subject objectives by discussing and reading about Christmas celebrations around the world, like Hanukkah!
Although Christmas may not seem particularly ‘Science-y’ at first glance, STEM learning have listed different lesson plans to tackle a number of Science units, including Electricity and Plants. One particularly fun lesson has an outdoor component which investigates the variation in holly leaves.
I cannot say enough good things about Scratch, a free program and coding community created by MIT to introduce children to computer coding. Children can create their own interactive stories, games, and animations and who’s to say these can’t be Christmas-themed?
Key Stage 3, GCSE and A-level Students
Most notably, ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens is one of the required texts for GCSE English in a few specifications. The BBC has written an excellent learner guide which includes a breakdown of important themes and a sample exam question. There’s a video and mini tests to complete which make this the perfect way to revise and consolidate knowledge!
This list of teaching ideas for the Christmas holidays written by The Guardian provides a lovely selection of lessons across different subjects. I really like making learning fun, and engineering ideas from The Big Bang channel explores the science behind Christmas lights and has learners create their own festive salt crystal decoration!
Much like their younger counterparts, even GCSE and A-level Maths students can get in the festive mood and apply their skills to fun Christmas-themed tasks! What about plotting quadratic graphs to create a Christmas picture? Even the MEI published and released the question and solution to the theme of Christmas Baubles - perfect for an A-level student looking to test their differentiation skills!
Get the help you need over the Christmas holidays by contacting us at Titanium Tutors. We would be more than delighted to support you with any extra guidance you may need over the Christmas period and beyond!
Blog Post Crafted by Cheryl
Cheryl manages our Admin Team, and is a qualified teacher with 5 years' experience in schools across England and Canada.
Cheryl graduated from McMaster University with an Honours Bachelor of Commerce and a Minor in English, and from University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Education, with a specialisation in Aboriginal Studies. She tutored secondary school students in English for over nine years in Canada.
Cheryl speaks Cantonese, English and French, and in her spare time, she can be found illustrating and reading children’s books for inspiration.