💕 Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links at no cost to you. It means I get a commission if you decide to purchase through my links. Thank you for your support. Stock Images supplied by Canva
Are you after fun learning preschool activities to prepare for your children this Christmas season? Children get so excited to find trays set up for them with hands-on explorations.
Joy and excitement are in the air in this house as we are approaching one of the most anticipated celebrations of the year for our family – Christmas. Since our children are still very young, it feels especially significant to build up our family traditions and events around this time. I have noticed that kids at this age have practically no expectations.
They are still getting familiar with cultural connotations and are happy to go with the flow. We are going to have a whole set of traditions surrounding the day of Christmas, however, I would like to add that extra excitement to everyday life leading to Christmas.
Christmas is probably the only time when I completely change our homeschooling classroom activities leaving only trays that are relevant to the Christmas theme. For the rest of the year, we often continue a light version of our homeschooling routine even on holidays, including the Montessori cycle. I am going to drop some ideas in this post I hope that will inspire you.
The Christmas story is obviously the center of our Christmas-themed activities. I thought these printable from Bible Story Printables with Nativity figures are adorable. We used them to create a puppet theatre to tell the story. This was a brilliant way to encourage the development of skills to retell and narrate stories for my 4yo Blossom.
We also started our first Advent calendar with Bible Verse Advent Countdown for Kids from Happy Home Fairy. Every night we light up one more candle and read a new Bible verse from the cards. It will be very exciting to light up all 25 candles on Christmas night and sing the Happy Birthday song and blow all the candles.
I made a set of Angels in Art 3-part cards to show the way artists expressed their perception of angels throughout the history of art. This work has intrigued a little person’s mind. There are some stunning examples of art out there. You can check out this set of printables here.
This is a free download with simple Christmas vocabulary for practicing identifying the initial sounds of the words and for matching Moveable alphabet letters to the pictures. I made this printable with cards to match as an alternative for those who don’t want to incorporate a moveable alphabet.
My free downloads are available to subscribers. Sign up to receive access to more than 20 free printables here.
My daughter is fascinated by the times when Jesus was alive – Jewish culture and traditions. She has a couple of books that she always comes back to studying the details, etc. We used the Metal inset frames to draw the Star of David.
We also experimented with drawing a Christmas wreath using this versatile material.
Another way to experiment with Sensorial Montessori materials – is the Knobless cylinder extensions. I created this printable, especially for this occasion. Feel free to check out here. These are a bit complex, and young children might require some adult guidance to work it out.
We love working with Montessori math beads. Counting ornaments on the Christmas trees incorporating math beads sounded like fun! There is a printable that goes with it. Click here to find out more.
There is also an option to color in the bead chains for children.
Hammering activity to strengthen fine motor and finger strength. This is an excellent challenge for preschool-aged children. We love using wood chips to make Christmas tree ornaments. These were kindly provided to us by Natural Resourcer.
Another great exercise for little fingers – Christmas themed play dough activity with cookie cutters and natural loose parts for making prints. Natural Resourcer has amazing nature packs with loose parts. We used them in all sorts of different ways to enhance natural learning.
This activity with a felt Christmas tree for attaching decorations is a tradition now in our home. can you tell these Christmas tree ornaments were arranged by a Montessori child? Assorted by type, color and all. This activity is especially beneficial for little ones aged 2 and 3 for their eye as it enhances their eye-hand coordination and concentration.
Don’t forget to download our free printables – Pine Tree Life Cycle with 3-part cards, poster, cutting, coloring and pasting printout, and tracing strip cards. If you are already a subscriber, check our last email with a link to the resource library or learn how to join here!
This year we are counting down the days till Christmas with this Christmas Advent Calendar. This is another subscriber freebie with a couple of different colorful versions.
I hope you got inspired today!
Resources you might find helpful in your classroom
Exploring Christmas - Children's Books and Learning Resources
Christmas Pack Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Folder Busy Book
Christmas-themed learning activity pack for Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten children aged 3-5. The Christmas learning folder contains printables to create a wide range of hands-on experiences for young children. Students will explore various math concepts, such as odd and even numbers, work with CVC words, practice simple subtraction and addition operations, explore the First Christmas Story, work on sequencing skills, improve their fine motor, work on storytelling, develop logical thinking, and so much more.
Pine Tree Life Cycle – Free Printables
There are so many uses of the Pine tree life cycle printables in a preschool or kindergarten classroom. These are a great addition to preschool Winter and Christmas units. Create trays for your Montessori shelf to explore the life cycle of conifer trees along with the tundra biome or botany unit – life cycle of a tree.
Nativity Cards matching Safari Ltd. Nativity SuperTOOB
The printable features watercolor images.
Images included in the printable – Nativity, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherd, camel, sheep, cow, donkey, Balthazar, Melchior, Gaspar.
Reviving Mindful Tradition of Eco - Friendly Cloth Gift Wrapping
I believe in is the time we revived the tradition of wrapping gifts into the fabric that has been around from the dawn of time and is still very popular in Japan.
Kid-Made Christmas Star Ornament
Making crafts with children creates an opportunity for spending this oh, so important and special one-on-one time with them. Creating a Christmas ornament inspired by a book is even more fun and meaningful. Our Christmas kid-made ornament was inspired by “The Story of Three Wise Kings” retold and illustrated by Tomie dePaola.
60 DIY Coloring Cards
60 DIY coloring cards for adults and children.
Angels in Art - Montessori Nomenclature Cards
Montessori Inspired Angels in Art – Montessori Nomenclature Cards.
Montessori Winter Pin Punching Cards
10 Winter themed cards for pin punching
Christmas Themed Math Beads Addition Cards
Christmas Themed Math Beads Addition Cards Printable contains
20 Colour Tree Cards with addition
18 Black and white tree cards with addition
Christmas Themed Knobless Cylinder Extensions
Montessori Christmas Themed Knobless Cylinder Extension Cards(made for sets with 5.5 cm radius of the thickest knobless cylinder)Printable contains 11 variations of Christmas themed extensions
DIY Christmas Personalized Photo Cards Photo Booth Props
DIY Wishing you a Montessori Christmas and Happy Holidays cards – personalized photo printable cards. Christmas Photo Booth Props (mustaches, eyeglasses, Santa hat and beard, reindeer antlers, also tie, bow, elf hat, angel).
Christmas Fine Motor Craft
Christmas craft is always loved by kids. It is something they get to make with their own hands and present it to someone special. There is a great choice of different art and craft materials out there, but I like to offer children ones that incorporate learning important skills and help the child to develop different fine motor. I picked these two simple, yet beautiful and exciting activities to make handmade Christmas ornaments that can be a sweet present for the child to give.
Montessori Christmas Shelves
Christmas is probably one single most exciting season of the year for many. This is a great time to set up activities that will keep children engaged and create wonderful learning opportunities. Here you will find a variety of exercises. It is lots of fun to use all sorts of materials and ones that are easy to get hold of.
December Themed Christmas and Winter Holidays Activities - Busy Book and Learning Mats
A busy book is a great way to prepare learning activities for preschool children when you don’t have much time on your hands. With the help of a busy book, children will practice fine motor, counting, recognizing numbers, simple addition. Activities will also help to improve important cognitive functions, logical thinking, and concentration.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Peekaboo Christmas (The World of Eric Carle)
The Christmas Wish (A Wish Book)
Jan Brett's The Nutcracker
The Family Under the Bridge: A Christmas Holiday Book for Kids
The Christmas Owl: Based on the True Story of a Little Owl Named Rockefeller
Dasher: How a Brave Little Doe Changed Christmas Forever
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story
The Jolly Christmas Postman
Little Red Sleigh: A Heartwarming Christmas Book For Children
Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
The Legend of St. Nicholas: A Story of Christmas Giving
Sounding Joy
The Promise and the Light: A Christmas Retelling
The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact-filled maps!
Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Christmas: With Carols, Presents, and Peace
This is an excellent challenge for preschool-aged children. We love using wood chips to make Christmas tree ornaments. Every night we light up one more candle and read a new Bible verse from the cards. Counting ornaments of Christmas tree incorporating math beads sounded like fun.