The Christmas Round-Up

With just a couple of school weeks to go before the Christmas break, there are a lot of great ideas and resources to be used in the classroom. Here’s my round-up of the best.

NORAD tracks Santa

Many of you will have tracked Santa’s movements on Christmas Eve, but did you know that NORAD has more to offer during the lead up to Christmas? Visit the library to read more about Santa, his sleigh, and holiday traditions around the world. It’s a useful place to go to answer those common questions from children, such as ‘Is Santa real?’ and ‘How does Santa get around the whole world in one night?’.

I particularly like the section on Santa’s sleigh, which could be used as a Maths stimulus. His sleigh measures 55cc x 75cc x 40cc (cc being candy canes) – measurement lesson anyone?!

Find all of this at the NORAD website: http://www.noradsanta.org

Santa’s House

Zillow brings us Santa’s house in a property listing format. There are some excellent photographs (and a video) to use as a talk/writing prompt, and the listing can be used as a model of a persuasive setting description. Children could write their own versions for Santa’s house as in the photographs, or for their own designs.

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http://www.zillow.com/santas-house/

The Christmas Shed (from The Literacy Shed)

You can’t go wrong with a film stimulus from The Literacy Shed. Rob has created a shed exclusively for Christmas films – there are currently 18 to choose from! Each one has teaching ideas and links below. You can also buy the ‘A shed full of Christmassy questions and activity pack’ for £3.50.

http://www.literacyshed.com/the-christmas-shed.html

Christmas activities from Primary Resources

Primary Resources has a large selection of Christmas activities (uploaded by users).

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/seasonal/seasonal.htm

Take a 360° tour of the North Pole

Explore the North Pole with this collection of 360° images from AirPano. Perhaps one for the older children – what does the North Pole really look like? How do people travel around the North Pole? How is the Arctic Ocean different to other oceans? What creatures can you find in the Arctic region?

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