How to Survive December in the School Library

Are you wondering how to navigate December in the school library? The weeks leading up to Christmas break have always been a challenging time for me, as they are for many educators. However, it can be especially demanding for specials teachers. The schedule is packed with activities like classroom parties, pajama days, assemblies, and sing-alongs—the list seems endless.

In my school, specials time is rarely, if ever, canceled. Teachers need this time to plan, prepare, and take a much-needed break, which I completely understand and support. But let’s be real—when you’re handed a class fresh from their holiday party, a calm storytime is probably not in the cards!

I’ll admit, there are moments when I’ve given in to the temptation of showing a Christmas movie. Let’s be honest—most of us have done it at some point! While it’s perfectly fine on occasion, it’s not something you want to rely on too often.

In this post, I want to share some of the lessons and activities I’ve used with my students during the weeks leading up to Christmas break. Hopefully, you’ll find some ideas to incorporate into your own lessons in the coming weeks!

Favorite picture books

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There are so many wonderful holiday books to choose from and more keep coming out every year. I could easily read them all year long. Below is a list of a few of my all-time favorites. You can also find out more of my favorite December books in this blog post.

• A Bad Kitty Christmas by Nick Bruel
• Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
• The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray
• Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho! by Doreen Cronin
• The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup
• The Great Reindeer Rebellion by Lisa Trumbauer
• Santa’s Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene

Activites for Lower Elementary

My favorite activities to use are my picture book choice boards with print and digital activites. Each choice board has 6 activites to go along with a Chrismtas picture book. You can choose to do one or all of the activities. And the best part is you can use either the print or digital, depending on your needs.

Gingerbread stories are very popular to read during Christmas time. I also have a Gingerbread picture book bundle to choose from as well.

I also like to teach kindergarten and first grade about winter holidays in other countries using my Winter Holidays Around the World. There is a digital and a print version.

Activites for Upper Elementary

Christmas Around the World Reading Comprehension Passages and Activities

• Recommended grades: 2-3
• 8 nonfiction reading passages about Christmas traditions in other countries
• One page reading response for each country
• Set of 24 task cards (color and b/w set)
• 10-page mini book for students to read and fill out
• 18 pages of writing prompts, a word search, Venn diagram, ABC order practice and more

I print out the reading passages and laminate them. I will give each table a passage and the comprehension page that goes along with it. After students have finished their country we will come back together and talk about what they learned. Sometimes this will last for two class periods. I do not give a copy of the minibook to each student since I usually have 80 or 90 students in a grade. But I will print out a copy and give a page to each of the groups to complete. Then I will put them together as a class book. 

Christmas Around the World Print Breakout

What is included in this product:

• Detailed instructions
• Scenario
• Brochure with short nonfiction passages (students will use this to answer the questions)
• Set of 3 challenges (color copies)
• Set of 3 challenges (black and white copies)
• Answer sheet and recording sheet
• certificate for completing the breakout (color and b/w)

Students will work together in groups to complete the activity. They will read the scenario and the brochure. Then they will work on solving each of the challenges.

• Challenge 1: Students will solve hink pinks (riddles answered by a pair of rhyming words.)
• Challenge 2: Mapping activity
• Challenge 3: Multiple choice ELA questions

Christmas Around the World Digital Breakout

The breakout is accessed through a Google Site. Students will go to the URL for the site to complete the breakout. On the Google Site is the scenario, student directions, links to each of the 3 challenges and a Google form for the students to enter the lock codes.

To learn about the different Christmas traditions students will first need to go to a Google tour builder that I have created. Here they will see an interactive map and read about the traditions in each of the countries. The countries discussed in this breakout: Sweden, Germany, France, Iceland, Australia, England, Italy, Iceland and Mexico.

The challenges:

• a matching activity in Google slides (students will match the country to a tradition)
• A multiple choice quiz in Google forms
• A jigsaw puzzle (once the puzzle is solved students will have to solve the riddle that is in the puzzle.)