Last Day Before Christmas Break Activities
It is the most wonderful time of the year. I don’t know about you but I love Christmas. I love everything about it. I love the cozy weather, I love the food, I love the lights, I love the music, I love decorating, and I love giving gifts to all my friends and family. Since I love this time of year, I also love sharing that love with my students. Truthfully, I enjoy just spreading the joy of the season. As a teacher too you may want to have a really chill last day of school before winter break. Even if it is only because the kids are a little stir crazy and won’t be able to focus because all they can think about is winter break. If you are wanting a chill day with possibly some academic things through out so students can learn something there are plenty of great last day before Christmas break activities below that you can pick from or do all of them over the course of a couple days or a week.
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Last Day Before Christmas Break Activities #1 Review Activities
One of the great last day before Christmas break activities is review activities. This can help your students get more practice on things that you have already gone over in class. It will not take too much brain power from your students because they are not learning new things. However, it can show you where they are and what you might have to go over again in January. It is even better if these review activities are Christmas themed and don’t feel like work and more like a fun game. Luckily, I have the different Christmas review games that I have made that I use with my students during the Christmas season.
Build a Santa or Reindeer Long Division Boom Cards
The first review activity that I do with my students at Christmas is my build a Santa long division boom cards and my build a reindeer long division boom cards. With both of these sets of cards students will do three long division problems and then they get to build a Santa or a reindeer depending on what set you get. There are so many outfits and items to choose from also to build the reindeer or Santa.
My students love to build their own Christmas characters. I also enjoy hearing the little stories that they make up with their characters and seeing them be creative with the practice.
I also enjoy the boom card aspect of it because I have broken down the answer into many parts and students have to show all their work not just give an answer. This way I can tell exactly what part of the process they don’t really understand based on what they get wrong. This can help me better understand what I need to review after Christmas break.
Build an Elf or a Christmas Sweater Double Digit Multiplication
Another activity that I use on the last day before Christmas break is my Build an Elf Double Digit Multiplication Boom Cards or Build a Christmas Sweater Double Digit Multiplication Boom Cards. These have a similar concept to the long division boom cards. Students will do three double digit multiplication problems and then they will get to build an elf or build a Christmas Sweater.
Students love these for all the same reasons as the long division build a sets. They get to build some cute Christmas characters as a reward for doing the questions. You can use all four of these build a sets to review. Maybe you have your students pick one that they want to do and all kids can pick different ones. You could also just get the one that you think is the most appropriate for your students to review based on what you taught.
Christmas Multiplication Drills Boom Cards
The last review activity that I do on the last day before Christmas Break is my Christmas multiplication Boom Cards. Multiplication is one of the things that I teach all the time and make sure that my students have it memorized. I made a lot of multiplication drills on boom cards. I have made them for every holiday throughout the entire year. Of course though since Christmas is my favorite time of the year the Christmas one has a special place in my heart.
These boom cards will have students clicking on the right answer for multiplication problems out of three choices. They also will have chances to fill out multiplication tables that way they can show that they really understand the multiplication. I have four boom decks overall that cover all the multiplication tables: 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12.
Last Day Before Christmas Break Activities #2 Christmas Carol Activities
Another great activity that should be on your last day before Christmas break activities list is Christmas carol activities. You can play a little bit of a Christmas carol and see if students can name the Christmas Carol. You can also use Christmas Carols from around the world or older Christmas carols. After the students say what carol it is or give up you can give a bit of the history of that Christmas carol and where it is from.
You can also print out the lyrics of Christmas carols and get rid of some of the words and have students fill in the lyrics that are missing. Along the same lines though you can make Christmas carol mad libs where students will ask other students for nouns or verbs etc. I guarantee you and your students will get a laugh out of the funny Christmas carols that are created through these mad libs.
Last Day Before Christmas Break Activities #3 Coloring Pages
Something that kids can do on the last day before Christmas Break is coloring pages. These can either be done with early finishers who get the boom cards done early or other activities done earlier, or there can be a whole section where students have different options of what to do and coloring pages is one of those options. I have created some amazing Christmas coloring pages for your students to have a great last day before Christmas break activity. If you would like access to these amazing Christmas Coloring pages you can click on the image below and become a subscriber to my email list and I will send you a copy of these amazing Christmas coloring sheets.
Last Day Before Christmas Break Activities #4 Holidays Around the World
Another great one of the last day before Christmas break activities is to look at holidays around the world. Every kid in your class may not celebrate Christmas. Maybe you have some students that celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanza, Sinterklaus, St. Lucia Day, Three Kings Day, or even other winter holidays. It makes them feel more included to have parts of the class dedicated to these other winter holidays.
You can find different books to read about these different holidays and also bring some of those traditions into the class to have games to play or food to eat that are a part of these holiday traditions from other countries and cultures.
Last Day Before Christmas Break Activities #5 Christmas Movies
Another great activity for the last day before Christmas break is to pull out the tv or the projector and put on some Christmas movies. This is a good low pressure activity that the students and you will enjoy for your last day. If you want to continue the theme of Holidays Around the World then you can pick a holiday movie from another culture.
I know that I had a lot of fun seeing the holiday movies that my friends from Norway watched at Christmas. The movie was called The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, which funny enough the movie had nothing to do with Christmas, but my friends said this is what they watch at Christmas and I actually really enjoyed it. If you can find movies like this then students can learn about other cultures while having a chill activity. If you want the next activity can be rolled into movie time as well.
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Last Day Before Christmas Break Activities #6 Hot Chocolate Bar
Another great last day before Christmas break activity is to have a hot chocolate bar. I love hot chocolate and it is easy to either heat water in an electric kettle or have hot chocolate in a slow cooker. The slow cooker can make the hot chocolate not so hot as well so your students don’t burn themselves.
Then you can have a bunch of toppings for students to put in their hot chocolate: marshmallows, chocolate chips, sprinkles, caramel, peppermints, whipped cream etc. This may get a little messy if you have students serve themselves so you and your teachers aids can help serve students or if your students are a little older and you trust them you can have them serve as well.
Last Day Before Christmas Break Activities #7 Coffee Filter Snowflakes
The last on the list of last day before Christmas break activities is probably my favorite Christmas activity and that is making coffee filter paper snowflakes. This activity is great because it also doubles as a science experiment to show how water spreads and how ink can spread with water also.
First you give each student a coffee filter and have them color them with markers. They can color them any way that they want to but tell them that less may actually be more because you can see the colors run more with less marker on them.
After that, show the students how to fold the coffee filters and cut designs. When they are done cutting their designs have them unfold the coffee filter onto a plastic plate. Then have spray bottles and have students spray their snowflakes with the water and see the colors spread. If you don’t have spray bottles they can pour some water on it from glasses. Then have students pour off excess water and put it somewhere to dry. After, being amazed and enjoying the colors spreading of course. When the snowflakes are dry you can hang them on a bulletin board. Possibly in January as a winter themed board.
I hope that you enjoyed this post that that you got some ideas for great last day before Christmas break activities. If you benefited from this post please consider sharing it.