Holiday Learning Centers

Try these fun and easy “DIY” holiday themed learning centers.

Jingle Bell Sorting

You’ll need an ice cube tray, a variety of jingle bells, and a set of kid friendly tongs. Have kids transfer the bells into the ice cube tray. For older kid they can sort, match colors, and make patterns.

Christmas Tree Decorating.

For older preschoolers, have them decorate a small Christmas tree. This is great fine more practice as well as a fun way to let kids decorate a classroom tree!

Holiday Shape Pictures.

This is a great way to have kids practice their shapes. They can use already made pictures to match shapes or for older kids have them make holiday pictures on their own using the same shapes. You can use wooden blocks or flat glass beads.

Snowball Counting

For this activity you will need white paint, construction paper, and cotton balls. Write a variety on numbers in a chart format on a piece of paper. Than have children use the cotton balls to make the right amount of snowballs for each number. For kids that are ready, they can write numbers 1-5 in order before stamping the snowball.

Gingerbread Lacing

This activity requires some prep beforehand. First, you will need to cut out a gingerbread shape on brown construction paper and then punch holes using a hole punch around the perimeter of the gingerbread. Once that it done, have the kids lace the paper using the over and under method with white yarn. Once they have finished lacing they can add a face and decorate their gingerbread men using paint.

Painting with Mittens

After reading “The Mitten” by Jann Brett have kids paint using gloves and mittens. This is a great process art activity to add to your centers.

Tree Pom Pom Drop

Cut small holes into a cardboard box and place a pine tree cut out on top. Cut matching holes into tree and label with different colors. Then, have children drop the corresponding Pom Poms into the holes. The is a great visual discrimination and fine motor activity for young kids.

Christmas Tree Counting

You can find these cute Christmas tree erasers at the Target Dollar section. Have kids use tongs to pick up and count the erasers. This is a great 1:1 correspondence math activity.