In December students are excited about the holidays, with programs, decorating and almost two weeks of vacation. The right resources can help special education teachers harness that excitement to support learning. These resources include lesson plans, printable worksheets, writing prompts, and graphing ordered pairs.
1. "Jingle Math" Uses Christmas Themed Manipulates for Problem Solving
Websterlearning
"Jingle Math" uses pictures with magnets on the back to teach math problem solving. I provide you free printable pictures that you can print on cardstock, color and cut out as well as some ideas for "Math Narratives" for your children to solve.
2. Graphic Organizers for Christmas
Websterlearning
These graphic organizers offer activities to stimulate thought, start writing or encourage creativity. Many of the activities would be excellent for that independent work time while you teach small groups.
Among the graphic organizers are Venn Diagrams, where students compare American traditions and the traditions of other countries.
3. Easy Christmas Dot to Dots for Counting
Websterlearning
Dot to dots are great ways to encourage children to practice counting. These dot to dots are easy, with counting by one to ten or twenty, as well as skip counting versions for 5's and 10's. Skip counting is a critical foundational skill for learning to count money and tell times.
4. A Christmas Brainstorm Activity
This activity generates lots of ideas and can be a great way to build collaboration skills: put your students in cross ability groups and assign recorder and reporter roles.5. Lesson Plans for Christmas
Patricia Polacco
These lesson plans cover 5 days of activities for a full inclusion classroom, with lots of collaborative activities and a big emphasis on diversity. Students are encouraged to learn about the cultural practices surrounding Christmas of other countries. The last lesson includes a story about Christmas in Uganda by Dinah Senkungu, a special educator teaching in the United States with a school she founded in Uganda.
6. A Lesson Plan for Christmas Shopping
Websterlearning
This lesson plan builds on students' excitement over Christmas, especially shopping. Using the flyers from the Sunday newspaper, students choose gifts for their family members, add them together and compare them to budget. This lesson includes pdf's for a T chart for the presentation, for a rubric and a worksheet to gather information and plan for each person to receive a gift.
7. A Christmas Rhyming Book
specialed.about.com
This booklet asks students to draw 5 Christmas items and think of rhyming words. This is a great activity for independent work time for students with emerging reading and writing skills. Besides, when they are done, your students will have a nice item to take home and give to Mom.
8. Christmas Writing Activities
Websterlearning
Here are several pages for Christmas writing. Even your most disabled writers are going to be enthusiastic about writing for Christmas. You will find graphic organizers to help them get started as well.
9. Christmas Dot Art Projects
Websterlearning
These free printables can be used with Bingo (Dot) Markers and involve cutting. These are great activities for students who need to practice using fine motor (cutting) skills. The final products are things your students can be proud of.
10. Ordered Pair Puzzles for Christmas
Here are some ordered pair worksheets to support graphing coordinates on a x,y graph.
