Thursday, December 5, 2019

Googley Wintertime Activities for Kids

[Updated as of December 2022]

As we get closer to the holiday break, it is expected and understandable that our students start getting a little distracted. They are looking forward to lots of days off, holiday celebrations, gifts, and more. Let's be honest … we may be a little distracted as well.
 
This is a time of year when we look for some fun activities to keep our students focused and active. But we don't just want busy work. If possible it is great to find projects that are fun, tie into wintertime themes, and still provide our students with a chance to be creative, write, or improve some content area skills.

To help out with that, I have put together eight wintertime-themed activities that use free Google tools, including Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings:

⛄ Activity #1 - Build a Snowman with Google Slides
🎄 Activity #2 - Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides
🧲 Activity #3 - Wintertime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings
📬 Activity #4 - Holiday Greeting Cards with Google Drawings
🎁 Activity #5 - "12 Days of Christmas" Guided Google Sheets Math Activity
🌟 Activity #6 - Pixel Art Ornaments with Google Sheets
❄️ Activity #7 - Wintertime Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs
💡 Activity #8 - Holiday Lights Writing with Google Docs

Some of these are projects I have shared in the past, while others are new twists on previous posts. Hopefully some of these will be a good match for your students to keep them busy AND learning as we head into the holidays.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides

A few years back I created a Google Slides template for "Build a Snowman". Since then I have had fun making other similar templates including "Build a Jack-O-Lantern" and "One Fish Two Fish" and more. With the holidays fast approaching I decided to make a similar activity for decorating a holiday tree.

You can do this project with this fun, and educational, Google Slides activity. This is a great way for students to be creative and to work on their writing skills by describing or writing about their holiday traditions, plans, or memories.

Here’s how:
  • Make a copy of the Google Slides “Decorate a Holiday Tree” template, found further down in the blog post.
  • The template has a blank tree and slides full of items to add to your tree including bulbs, lights, bells, stars, and more.
  • Copy and paste the items to decorate your tree.
  • If you need different pictures, you can search for more.
  • You can even add or draw your own shapes as needed.
  • When done decorating your tree, write about your holiday traditions, a favorite memory, your best present, what you want this year, what you are thankful for, or such.
  • When all done you can download a picture of your tree and writing to share with others.

See below to get your own copy of the template, as well as more detailed directions on how to do the activity.