December can be hectic. Behavior is up while attention is low. Students are excited while teachers are tired. Christmas break is on the horizon. Everyone wants to be done. But with a few tweaks to change things up, December can be fun and successful.
The Challenge
The media is telling your kids it’s time to celebrate. They are tired of the routine. Most importantly, you need students at their best for testing. The good news it, with just a bit of planning to change things up, you and your class can sail through December.
Change Things Up
Just a few tweaks can pay off big! At my school, we would keep things pretty much the same until the week of testing. Then, we would begin mixing things up. Making changes around testing, behavior, and the Social Studies topic can make things much more pleasant and meaningful.
Testing
In many schools, December brings the winter testing window. Teachers struggle to make sure students give their best attention during testing. If the stars are aligned, and there are no interruptions, and the test goes well, your kids are spend, even if it is morning.
You want to schedule activities that are meaningful, while allowing students to regenerate their grit:
- offer fidgets or comfort items from home
- extra recess after testing
- holiday themed review games
- extra reading time on student device
- low lights when on devices
Change Things Up With Behavior Incentives
Students have been in school since August. They are tired. Most are stressed about testing. They act out. I think about how much support they needed in the beginning, and go towards that. I used coins in my room, but you might use tickets or points.
During December, I had my student store open all day. Kids could redeem when they wanted. This made them eager to stay on track and finish tasks. I paid them for behavior, and for work. The more stressful the day, the more chances I gave to earn. Some ideas to curb behavior:
- Change things up on the schedule
- Work in more free time (stations, read-to-self time)
- Offer extra privileges (fun Friday every day)
- Make sure that crafting or games are late in the afternoon, so they have a reasone to keep it together.
Christmas Around the World
When you view the holiday as a Social Studies topic, that justifies many fun activities. If you research a country per day, you can cover map skills as well as cultural traditions. If you weave in small crafts that serve as icons for cultural traditions, you then have memory aids for retelling new learning.
There are many activities you could do that
- check youtube for videos on holiday customs and traditions of other countries
- have students draw their own plate or holiday table to share
- Compare and contrast your students’ family traditions
“When do you open gifts?”
“What holiday movies do you watch?”
“Do you play games as a family?”
“Where do you hang up lights?”
Every year, I felt like the holiday activities and sharing we did in December really cemented the students bonds. We worked hard, and we played hard!
If you need a Christmas Around the World resource, click on one of the covers to check out my resources.
