Easy Christmas Crafts for Primary Kids
How to Make Holiday Projects in the Elementary Classroom
Dec 4, 2008
Teachers can get elementary students excited about the Christmas holiday by reading Santa and North Pole themed children’s books and making Christmas crafts and projects in the classroom.
How to Make a Santa Advent Calendar
One way that teachers can make the countdown to Christmas vacation go by smoothly is with a Santa face advent calendar. Students use a paper plate as Santa’s head. At the top of the head they glue a red felt hat with a white cotton ball at the end.
Underneath the hat they use crayons or markers to draw and color Santa’s face leaving room at the bottom for a beard. The teacher gives each student a bag of cotton balls- one for each school day until Christmas vacation.
The kids count the cotton balls and talk about how many days there are left and all of the fun things that they will do in school during that time. At the end of each day the students glue a cotton ball onto Santa’s face until he has a fluffy beard.
How to Make Pipe Cleaner Candy Canes
Elementary students can make chenille pipe cleaner candy canes to use as ornaments, pins, or holiday decorations. Students choose two different colored pipe cleaners that are cut into eight inch pieces and twist them together.
Ribbon can be threaded through the pipe cleaners to make an ornament or a safety pin can be hot glued onto the back to make a Christmas pin. Students can also hang the candy canes on the classroom Christmas tree or use them as bookmarks.
How to Make a Snow Globe
After reading about The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg [Houghton Mifflin, 1985] primary teachers can make snow globes with their students. To gather enough supplies for every student in the class the teacher can send home a letter to parents asking them to send in small glass jars such as baby food jars.
To make the snow globe students choose plastic figures for the snow scene and an adult helps them hot glue the figures to the bottom of the jar. The jars are then filled with water and white or silver glitter. Before screwing the top back on the jar the teacher uses the hot glue gun to spread a thin layer of glue around the top to form a tight seal.
How to Make Jingle Bell Napkin Rings
Elementary students can make fun napkin rings for themselves or as gifts for their family members. The students each get a toilet paper roll that they cut into four rings and paint red or green. After the paint dries they use hot glue or thin green wire to affix small jingle bells around each of the ring.
How to Make Christmas Cards for Nursing Homes
Primary students can spread holiday cheer by making Christmas cards for local nursing home residents. Teachers can teach a mini-lesson on how to write a friendly letter and then have students practice writing letters during Writer’s Workshop time. Students can add clip art or illustrations to their final copies and send them to nursing home residents.
Christmas crafts and projects can be used by elementary school teachers to add fun and excitement to winter lessons. Students can build on their reading and writing lessons by making Santa advent calendars, candy cane decorations, snow globes, napkin rings and Christmas cards.
