Christmas Read Alouds and Centers for Kindergarten

Christmas is right around the corner, which means your students are getting excited and the days are winding down before winter break. Keep your students learning and having fun all month long with these Christmas for kindergarten activities, centers, read alouds, and more!

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Christmas Read Alouds

Christmas is such a magical time of year and reading Christmas books just seems to make it even more joyful.

By reading Christmas books to your students, you open up the opportunity for great conversations. Students can learn more about giving, being appreciative, and how others celebrate the holidays.

There are so many great Christmas read alouds out there, but today I'm sharing my all-time favorites and kindergarten crowd pleasers.

• Ten Christmas Wishes
• The Great Reindeer Rebellion
• Turkey Claus
• Is It Christmas Yet?
• Oh, What a Christmas!
• The Best Christmas Ever
• Rock Star Santa
• Olive, the Other Reindeer
• Snowmen at Christmas
• Who Will Help Santa This Year?
• Bear Stays Up for Christmas
• A Cookie for Santa
• Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Power of Giving

Christmas Math and Literacy Centers

This time of year is when teachers are doing everything they can to keep student engagement high and make learning fun. The best way to bring a little holiday cheer to their lesson plans is with Christmas for kindergarten activities.

Using Christmas-themed math and literacy centers throughout the month of December is a great way to practice important math and literacy skills while still keeping your students motivated.

What's not to love about center activities that have themes such as Santa and Mrs. Claus, reindeer, elves, Christmas trees, presents, Christmas cookies, and more?

There are 25 hands-on math and literacy centers included to cover all of your learning bases all month long. Each center comes with kid-friendly “I Can” cards and a recording sheet to encourage independent learning and extra practice.

Christmas Math and Literacy Freebie

If you're looking for quick and easy prep math and literacy activities, be sure to add this set of FREE Christmas math and literacy activity mats to your December lineup.

These activities cover skills such as numbers to 20, making 10, middle sounds, and word families. All you need for these activities are basic supplies like dice, spinners (or a pencil and paperclip), Christmas mini erasers, and plastic cubes.

These activity mats are perfect to add to your morning tub activities, partner games, math and literacy centers, or as an early finisher activity.

Want to get these free Christmas for kindergarten activities delivered right to your inbox? Fill out the form below and they'll be on their way!

Christmas Writing Centers

With all of the fun themes that come with Christmas, there is so much for students to write about. When students are engaged in what they're writing about, they'll be more excited to practice their beginning writing skills.

These Christmas writing centers for kindergarten are perfect for encouraging students to work on their skills while using their creativity.

There are Christmas and holiday-themed vocabulary words, hands-on writing center activities, and no-prep writing activity pages included in this set of writing centers.

Your students will have so much fun with the different themes included, such as Christmas, gingerbread houses, and baking.

There's something for everyone, so if you can't use specific Christmas themes with your students, we've got you covered with the other tasty themes. If you're looking for more gingerbread-themed ideas, check out this blog post.

Anchor charts, journal covers, writing guides, and more are also included to help your students become independent writers.

Gingerbread Letter Sounds Game

The days leading up to winter break are full of schedule changes and small pockets of time to do Christmas for kindergarten activities. This gingerbread letter sounds game is perfect to play anytime of day, but especially in between activities or events.

You can also use this game during your morning warmup, small group time, or as a whole group literacy game. This game helps students recognize letters and sounds.

To play, display the poem in your classroom or project it on your board. Students will recite the gingerbread chant while one student picks a letter from a basket.

Students can take turns coming up to the front of the room or sit in a circle and pass the basket around.

The student picks a letter, either uppercase or lowercase, and identifies the letter and its sound. Then the whole group makes the sound.

This game can continue for as long as time allows or until all students have had a turn. To take this game a step further and add a little extra practice, recording sheets are also included.

Free Christmas Sight Word Books

Practicing sight words in context by reading sight word books is important for students as they build their reading fluency.

It can be tough to find sight word books that focus on the words you need without requiring a ton of prep.

I created a set of FREE Christmas sight word books that are no-prep and only require 2 quick folds. You can grab them for your classroom in this blog post.

I hope you enjoyed these Christmas for kindergarten activities, read alouds, and freebies. Wishing you and your students a very Merry Christmas season!