Christmas Template

It's beginning to look a lot like...🎄

'Tis the Season 👼

🎶 Hark! The district angels sing,

Vacation’s near—it’s happening!

Parties, projects, kids run wild,

Counting days till grades are filed.

Does Everyone Celebrate Christmas the Same Way?

While there are many commonalities, countries around the world all celebrate Christmas in their own way. Carols on the beach? Shoes on the windowsill? Read on to learn more!

"With a little old driver

dogs dressed as christmas tree and present

So lively and quick

I knew in a moment!"

🔔 Find Christmas Poetry Activities Here (and poems just below)

Our favourite Christmas poems

Christmas poetry is sure to get you feeling festive. Here are the very best poems for Christmas for kids and adults, from Christina Rossetti to A. A. Milne.

panmacmillan.com

Getting Creative with Advent

Here's a slideshow of super creative but very manageable ideas for a DIY advent calendar.

Advent -- It's math! It's sustainability! It's the spirit of the season 🌲

Creating an advent calendar with your class, either as a whole-class, small group, or individual project, is engaging and entertaining in those challenging weeks before the holiday.

Not only is there endless creativity with upcycling or recycling classroom/household materials to create calendar, but instead of chocolate, each day could bring a soul-rewarding treat: a good deed to do, a compliment to pay someone, a learning challenge.

Or... make it a gift from you to your students!

Read about how one teacher created a 12-day countdown advent calendar for her students designed to keep them engaged in learning as they counted down to vacation.

Teaching About the Holidays in Public Schools

Keene, New Hampshire, where I teach music today, is a relatively secular community. Statistically speaking, it falls below the national average for religiosity, with just over 20 percent of the population officially affiliating with a specific church, temple, or mosque.

edutopia.org

Really Cool Info About Holidays and Their Ancient Roots

Michaelmas? Candlemas? May Day? Learn about the quarter and cross-quarter days here, dating back to the ancient Celts.

Take Care of You!

Prepping for the holidays

This video has really easy tips for making beautiful holiday cookies
This article from the Today Show has helpful ideas for $0 spending this holiday season
This is a handy-dandy week-by-week guide of what to watch on Netflix (to simplify vacation binging...!)
This blog post is rich with ideas for how to pamper yourself over vacation without spending a dime.
And if you're not really feeling the holiday spirit this year, that's ok, too. This post has concrete, useful suggestions for how to tend to your own wellbeing.

Vacation Enrichment Activities

This is a great list of simple, no-cost learning-enriched activities that all families can do over the vacation to help keep the learning going while school's not in session.