Keeping Kids Calm Through the Holidays

Children are excited throughout the holiday season because of family, friends, gifts, good food, candy and fun. This can often mean chaos in the classroom as students look forward to parties and holiday breaks from the normal routine.

One way to manage this excitement in the classroom is to acknowledge their excitement. Here are a few ideas that can help:

1. Start off each day with sharing time. Pull names from a hat if time is short and allow a handful of students to share their family traditions, what they are excited about, what gifts they are hoping to receive and more.
2. Assign holiday writing projects where students will write poems on snow flakes and snow men and craft holiday stories to share. The more creative the final draft decoration, the more holiday cheer will fill the classroom as the decorations go up.
3. Choose a handful of holiday books and allow the students to pick which book to read first. Be sure to have class discussions about the book to get the students talking about the holidays.

Find lesson plan ideas that focus on the holiday as well, as this might help kids remain focused and learning during this exciting time of year. Here a some Christmas Math Lessons to get started.

Related posts:

1. Handling Holiday Excitement
2. Acknowleding the Distraction
3. Holiday Party as a Motivational Threat
4. Q. What is 1-2-3 Magic For Teachers?
5. Behaior Management After Break