Holiday Word Games

Once a week I teach Grade 8 Humanities at the middle school I worked at last year. Today we finished off our World Religion presentations and then did some holiday word games. I adapted a few popular games and created a mix up interactive game for the students.

Here is how it went:

Two teams.
Bucket of themed words (We did Holiday movies, songs and items, which I prepared last night)
First person draws a word and then has the choice to either:

1. Charades - Act it out
2. Catch Phrase - Speak but not use words on the card
3. Pictionary - Draw it
4. Hum (songs)

The only real catch was that once someone did one thing (for example, charades) no one on their team could do it again until all 4 choices had been used, then we 're start' again and they can choose any of the four methods to showcase the word.

If their team guessed, they got a point, if they didn't (within two mintues) then the other team could 'steal'

They LOVED IT!

My favourite moment was when one student, who never speaks or participates in class activities (english is not his first language and he also has some cognitive barriers that make communication challenging at times, especially with his peers) but he got up and not only participated, but when he drew his item (a star) and the team guessed, everyone cheered (even the opposing team) and high fived him! Inclusion... I loved it!

What a great day!

We also did 'scattegories' I prepared a chart last night that looked something like this:

Letters:
Something Red
Christmas Song
Christmas Sweet
Christmas Dinner Food
Christmas Movie
Something Green
Stocking Stuffer

So we would do it "BOGGLE' Style and choose a letter and they had 5 minutes to come up with words. The trick was, that if somone else picked the same word, no points. If they had a word no one else picked, they got a point.

Fun word games leading up to Winter Break!

Fun Holiday ideas...

The 'melted snowman' water bottle made me literally laugh out loud....

Source

Hand Print Tree Ornaments

My friends and colleagues know my obsession with handprint art, so this idea looks amazing to me!

Advent Calendar Idea...

I remember in Grade 1 we had an advent calendar for a class of 24 students. I remember we each for one chocolate and did a name draw for the 25th chocolate. I won!

My classmates hates me for it.

But I was so proud, because I had never won anything in my (short) life.

This idea, however, will ensure no one is jacked up on sugar in class, no student with allergies are left out, and no classmates get jealous of another....

BOOKS!

Wrap each book up and each day unwrap one to read as a class. I am thinking this may be something great to do at home with my daughter, but also, could be done easily in class.

I wondered about the "Christmas" theme and how to avoid any issues with that - but what about if some books talked about different December celebrations? So it wasn't just Christmas?

This year (and last) I teach middle school and part of our curriculum is World Religions, so we study all the different celebrations.

Anyways, I just thought this is a great way to promote literacy, reading, Christmas countdown, and avoid sugary treats =)

Christmas Math Graphing

There are plenty of fun activities to do around the holidays with math, but this on and educational. What I like about this is that if you are a TTOC this is a fun activity that requires very little materials (just some graphing paper which can be found and printed online if there is not any in the class)

This teacher had students do a coordinate graphing picture of either a tree or a fireplace for extra credit.

In addition there is a decorating contest for anyone who wants to win a free assignment pass. The students who want to be in the contest color there pictures and bling them out however they choose. The students who want the extra credit, but don't want to be in the contest, just do the coordinate graphing (the kids who do the contest also get the extra credit).

Here are some of the decorated trees and fireplaces that were decorated for the contest:

 

There are some awesome other Math Holiday activities here including snowflake making.