How To Survive Teaching in December and Making it Through Holidays

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Winter Break can feel exhausting. While the weather changes and the days become shorter, the students grow in their excitement for the upcoming break and holidays. Teaching in December can be tough. What is a tired reading teacher to do? Read on for some tips on how to survive teaching reading through the December holidays!

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Teaching in December

In order to survive teaching reading at this time of year take some time for yourself and plan seasonal engaging activities with your classes.

Self Care

My husband and I always take a personal day together in December. We usually take a Friday or Monday off, leading to a long weekend. Depending on when break falls we usually try to plan our day off the weekend before Winter Break starts. For example, if Winter Break starts on December 21st, we would take off the Friday before (the 14th in this example).

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This is a great day to get things done, but it also gives me an earlier day to look forward to instead of counting down to break. Plus I get to spend a lovely day with my hubby!

If you are unable to take a personal day during this time, look into going to a conference. I had a teacher in my building that typically attends a conference the week before winter break. She would go for a day and come back a little refreshed and with a few ideas to try. Not a bad way to get a break without using a personal day.

Countdown to Winter Break

I work at an elementary school that loves to go all out counting down to Winter Break. My school loves to do a countdown to winter break. Every year we do the 12 Days of December countdown.

Some of the spirit days are:

Winter Hat Day
Winter Pajama Day
Green Day/Red Day/ Blue Day
Holiday T-Shirt or Sweater Day
Dress to Impress- New Year’s Eve Attire
Flannel/Plaid Day

It is fun to participate in the various spirit days. My closet of holiday wear has seemed to increase quite a bit over the past few years.

But as you may have read, oh wise teacher, that means that we are signaling that the craziness begins on December 1st. A countdown to anything at school is like giving explicit permission to the students to be a little goofier, talk a little louder, and be a bit more excitable each and everyday of the countdown.

Anyone else do an ABC countdown at the end of the school year? The idea is fun, but it is also like telling my fifth graders that I believe school is wrapping up 26 days early and they can just stop caring about learning at all the day we start the ABC countdown.

Counting down to Winter Break is fun, but it also has the possibility of . . . not being fun for the teacher. At all. #teacherproblems

Fun Reading Activities to Enjoy Teaching in December

Here are some of my favorite holiday themed reading activities. While a lot of these activities are related to Christmas, I try to include a variety of winter holidays and communicate a respect for everyone’s beliefs in my classroom.

I love these activities because the students stay engaged, which makes it fun to teach. Teaching with these activities become less managing behaviors and more enriching the reading curriculum.

Christmas Activities for Reading Comprehension by Lovin’ Lit- If you are familiar with some of my other blog posts, you will know that I really value the products created by Lovin’ Lit on Teachers Pay Teachers. This is another fantastic product and is one of my teaching highlights of the year. There are a few activities that come in the product, but my favorites are the one-two punch of annotating One Horse Open Sleigh and Marco Polo’s Christmas Around the World Active Listening Guide. After annotating One Horse Open Sleigh, your students will think quite differently about the song Jingle Bells. The crossover of that song into Marco Polo’s Christmas Around the World is such a delight. These are two reading lessons that will be fun and keep the students focused and engaged.

Christmas Mystery Close Reading Activity- Who Destroyed the Snowman? by Presto Plans I love leaving my class with a mystery to figure out. I have quite a few holiday math mysteries that I love to use, but reading mysteries can be more challenging to find. I love pretty much anything by Presto Plans. They make such useful and visually creative products. This was a fun break for the kids to enjoy. It was also pretty easy to print up and leave as sub plans.

Christmas Close Reading Really Jolly Stuff by Lindsay Flood– I appreciate these highly engaging informational text articles. They are age appropriate for my class of fifth graders, but still interesting. My favorite article from this product is 123 Candy Cane Lane, North Pole, USA. The only thing I wish this had was an answer key to help as a guide for a substitute as this makes a perfect reading activity to complete with the sub while I take my personal day in the days leading up to winter break.

Winter Holiday Summarizing Task Cards Freebie by Rachel Lynette– This is a great activity to get the students up and moving while still working on their reading skills. I love task cards and actually have my students place the task cards around the room. They are given one task card each, I usually pull popsicle sticks with their names on it to decide the order, and tell them to place them around the room. The only rule is it needs to be in a spot where it can be seen. This rule does need to be clarified with fifth graders, otherwise students would be tucking the cards into a book and placing them in other locations that defeats the purpose of the activity.

Christmas Simile and Metaphor Task Cards by Teaching With a Mountain View– This is another task card freebie. Teaching With a Mountain View makes such high quality materials consistently, I have never been disappointed by anything I have purchased from her store. Figurative language is always great to practice and review continuously throughout the year and why not do it in the days leading up to Winter Break!

Christmas Science Kits– This is such a creative teacher gift for students. The kit comes with instructions on what needs to be purchased separately and then combined in a bag with the science notebook which contains the science experiment instructions. The years that I have done this for students, I have received more positive feedback instead of the years when I give a different type of classroom gift like a book or a fidget.

Fun Math Activities to Enjoy Teaching in December

While this blog focuses mostly on teaching reading, I do also teach math and have quite the bag of tricks for my holiday math resources.

CSI Math Mystery- Who Stole Santa’s Sleigh and CSI Math Winter The Abominable Snowman are both products created by math activities club. My 5th grade students enjoy figuring out who the culprit was that stole Santa’s sleigh. These are both great activities for about one hour of math. They also make great activities to leave with a sub!

Mrs. J’s Digital Math Mystery Christmas Escape Room is another great option to use. I have been really happy with all of her math mysteries. The Thanksgiving Math Mystery was the first digital escape room I have tried with my classes and all of my students begged for more!

I have also created a few Christmas and Winter products in my own Teacher’s Pay Teachers store.

Christmas Activity Pack for Middle School– Your Middle School Students will love this December pack of word searches, crack the code cryptogram and holiday coloring pages for older students! This would be PERFECT for sub plans, early finishers, morning work, and more! Includes December & Christmas activities as you prepare for winter break. I tried to come up with some unique and interesting activities that might not be out there like unique, interesting and odd toys that are currently or once sold to children, like the Bank Robbery Starter pack. Just google it!

I also have a Winter Activity Pack for sale as well.

Christmas Secret Message – This would be perfect for morning work, early finishers or a fun holiday activity. These Secret Messages are all fun holiday trivia, facts and quotes about Christmas from movies and books. Ten messages with an answer key for each message are included. You can also grab my December Crack the Code as well.

Christmas Making Words– These Christmas themed, no prep worksheets are perfect and easy to differentiate. Making Words is a great literacy activity for any reading teacher’s classroom. A separate answer key is included for each activity, containing all possible (school appropriate) words to make. This activity includes a student recording sheet, student scaffolding page for modification and an answer key for 20 words. This set includes the 20 Christmas themed words and phrases: North Pole, Mistletoe, Yuletide, Reindeer, Sleigh Bells, Kris Kringle, Fruitcake, Jack Frost, Stocking, Carolers, Gingerbread, Holiday Cards, Ornaments, Jingle Bells, Figgy Pudding, Nutcracker, Peppermint, Sugarplum, Secret Santa and Santa Claus.

Winter Making Words– I also have a winter themed, no prep worksheet that is an engaging word building activity that could be used during your literacy block. This product includes non-holiday winter words like: snowflake, hot chocolate, sledding, fireplace and frost bite to name a few.

Get Into the Read Aloud Spirit- Holiday Edition

I love me some adorable reading themed teaching t-shirts. They make me happy!

Reading themed t-shirts are perfect for any day of the week but especially during the countdown to winter break! Here are a few of my favorites-

Snow Much to Read Sweatshirt– Etsy

Reindeer Reading T-shirt– Etsy

Tis the Season to be Reading Sweatshirt– Etsy

North Pole Book Club Sweatshirt– Etsy

Reading Snowman– Piper & Ivy

Proud Supporter of Snow Days– Piper & Ivy

Prepare for January

In the rush to get out of school for Winter Break, leave yourself a gift and have an easy lesson planned for the first day back in the new year. I like being present for my entire Winter Break with my family and that includes turning off all of what I leave at school. In order for me to do that successfully, I like to leave myself set up with an easy plan for the return in January.