How can you keep your students engaged and on task during the crazy holiday season? Add some great December math and literacy centers and your students will be begging you to try them out!
Setting Up Your December Math And Literacy Centers
Every elementary teacher knows that teaching during the month of December is not an easy task. Kids are excited about the upcoming holidays and are looking forward to a break. But that doesn't mean we can throw in the towel and stop teaching, right? Not at all! We just need to get creative by adding some fun games and activities to our lesson plans that will keep kids motivated to learn.
December is the perfect month to add some fun holiday items to your learning centers. There's so much to choose from at your local dollar stores that can be used as enticing props and game pieces for center activities. Take a stroll up and down the aisles and you'll find holiday trinkets like pencils, pens, mini holiday erasers, gift bags and boxes, and other mini toys. These make great props for your December math and literacy centers.
December Math Center
By this point in the year, you've probably introduced addition and subtraction to your first-grade students. Why not add some fun games to your math center to practice these skills. Speedy Train Addition is one of our classroom favorites! Grab a holiday wind-up train at your local Dollar Tree or a one-minute egg timer and students can try to beat the time by answering math facts and building their own holiday train.
Grab a few mini ornaments from your local craft store and add them to a fun addition game like Trimming The Tree. Your students will love playing this game with a friend and using the ornaments and work mat to help them solve the problems.
Everyone loves building gingerbread houses! Why not add Roll A Gingerbread House to your December math center and students can practice adding two dice then follow the directions to build their yummy house. This game is great for center time because students can play alone or with a friend.
Finally, everyone is hoping Santa will be on time when he visits on Christmas eve. Have students practice telling Santa Time with this fun pocket chart game. Kids simply match the analog and digital clocks.
December Library Center
Dig out all your holiday favorites for your December library center. Kids will love reading books about reindeer, Santa, gingerbread, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other holidays around the world. Add a few props from the dollar store like Santa glasses and holiday pencils as pointers to make reading even more fun this month. Some of my favorite holiday books for December are:
- How To Catch An Elf
- The Polar Express
- The Littlest Reindeer
- The Gingerbread Baby
- How Santa Got His Job
- The Night Before Christmas
- The Night Before Hanukkah
- Seven Candles For Kwanzaa
December Art Center
Your students will love visiting the art center this month. This is the perfect place for students to make holiday greeting cards and ornaments. Fold some red and green paper in half, add some holiday stickers and paint and let students create Christmas and other types of cards. You can have kids make cute thumbprint greeting cards like these by adding some red and green paint to this center.
These reindeer ornaments are always a hit with students and parents each year. Put a basket of popsicle sticks at your December art center and let kids color them with brown crayons. They can glue them together with Elmers liquid glue or if you have an extra set of adult hands, have them glue it for the students with a hot glue gun. Students can add googly eyes and a red jewel for Rudolph's nose!
Finally, December wouldn't be complete without a countdown calendar to Christmas! This Santa Countdown Calendar makes a great addition to your art center this month. Students simply cut out the face, hat, and calendar beard. Glue together and add some cotton for Santa's hair and beard. Kids can take them home and add a piece of cotton each day and when Santa's beard is full, it will be Christmas eve.
December Word Work Center
This month at your word work center add some games with a holiday twist like these Christmas Syllables task cards. Students can clap out each word and then clip a clothespin to show how many syllables are in each word. I found these adorable clothespins at our local Dollar General.
Another fun game that students will love is What's In Santa's Bag? Students can sort the toy cards in Santa's bag and then put them in ABC order on the work mat. Kids will love dreaming about the gifts under their own tree while doing this fun practice activity.
Are you working on blends in your phonics lessons? Students can have fun reviewing blends for S, R and L with these holiday board games. Add the matching worksheets to your word work center for extra practice.
December Spelling Center
Add a few holiday props to your spelling center and your students will be begging to practice their spelling or sight words! I always liked to add a small tabletop Christmas tree to make this center more festive. This month students can practice their words with one of the Roll A Word Games. There are three to choose from so that all of the students in your room can participate! In this fun activity, kids roll a dice and then follow the directions to write their words.
December Writing Center
There are so many fun things to add to your December writing center! Dollar stores are full of fancy pens, pencils, and holiday notepads to tempt your students to write! Kids will love writing letters to Santa, Mrs. Claus and Rudolph. Why not add some Christmas writing prompts like how to make a gingerbread man or how to decorate a Christmas tree. When you add engaging writing prompts and utensils, students will actually WANT to practice writing this month.
Are you ready to get your students excited about math and literacy centers this month? Click here to grab these December games and activities.
Want to know more about how to use math and literacy centers in your classroom? Check out these posts.
