Demand Attention Before Holiday Breaks

While many teachers demand attention from their students before a holiday break by cracking down on the rules or pleading with students to focus, one teacher came up with a much more creative method that had the students focused and having fun:

Behaior Management After Break

When students come back to school after a nice break, the are often reluctant to enter back into the normal routine and may be more disruptive at first. They may have been out of town or otherwise unable to talk to their friends and will want to catch up on what everyone did, causing a lot of talking in class.

One great way to handle this behavior issue after a break from school is to designate the first half hour or so of class time for catching up. The teacher can start by sharing what she did over break and then ask if any other students would like to share as well. After a time of sharing, the teacher should then explain to the children that they can continue to share and catch up with their friends during lunch and recess time.

Handling Holiday Excitement

Student are going to only become more and more excited as Christmas comes closer, causing teachers to have to work extra hard to keep students focused on the lessons. Here are a few ideas to help focus students and minimize unruly behavior.

1. Focus lessons around a holiday theme. For example, for math class, find ways to tie the lesson into a holiday related theme. For more ideas check out: Christmas Math Lessons
2. Bring Christmas into the Classroom. Create bulletin board displays that get students involved and participating in the preparations for Christmas. Here are some Christmas Bulletin Board ideas.
3. Start some Christmas related traditions in the classroom. This will not only help teach students about the true meaning behind Christmas, but keep them excited and focused on the activity, minimizing behavior issues. Here are some ideas for Christmas traditions that teachers can implement in the classroom.

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.