From being focused on crafting the perfect Christmas list, to counting down the days until the holiday break, when Christmas time comes around it can be challenging for students to concentrate.
While the ActivPanel is a solution capable of helping to transform learning year-round, for the festive period we are looking at a few fun and high-spirited activities you can try out!
Without further ado, here are some of our favourite Christmas Activities with minimal preparation that should keep students engaged right up to the festive break:
A Christmas Quiz using ActivInspire
A quiz is always a great way to boost engagement in the classroom, and ActivInspire provides the tools to create quizzes suitable for any occasion. Christmas quizzes can be customised depending on the students’ capabilities, from light-hearted Christmas facts to more nail-biting questions.
With the Revealer tool on ActivInspire, you can expose information gradually to create quizzes packed with suspense. A Christmas quiz is a reliable way to keep things merry and light while challenging students’ knowledge! Consider mixing Christmas queries with real curriculum info to keep brains ticking over.
Festive Pictionary using the Whiteboard App, Spinner, and Timer
Using the Whiteboard App alongside the Spinner and Timer, teachers can create an on-demand festive Pictionary game. If you aren’t familiar with Pictionary, it’s a charades-inspired word-guessing game whereby players try to guess what their teammates are drawing while the clock is ticking.
To play Pictionary, the class will need to be split up into teams with at least two players on each. The Spinner will randomly select a prompt whether it’s a person, object, film, or subject, for the player to draw. The interactive whiteboard app acts as a canvas for players to illustrate their word for team members to guess. The Timer can be placed over the Whiteboard throughout the activity to time each player fairly, keeping them on point and adding excitement to activities.
Pictionary is a great way to get students thinking while keeping a festive spin on things, from guessing Christmas films to nativity characters and seasonal decorative objects. It encourages students to think outside the box in how they can communicate ideas without using specific words; and gives both teachers and students the opportunity to get creative in the run up to Christmas!
Christmas Jumper Design
Christmas jumper days are always a favourite – but designing a Christmas jumper introduces a whole new approach, and the ActivPanel can be used to facilitate collaborative creations.
Using the interactive display, Topmarks’ Christmas Jumper Designer is a free and accessible online game which allows you to create your own Christmas jumper masterpiece by selecting from a wide range of colours, patterns and motifs. When students complete their Christmas design, the finished work can then be saved and posted on a class blog, printed out, or shared on social media.
Whether you wish to create a design using either paper or the ActivPanel, digitally or in-person, this activity is a great way to get students’ artistic juices flowing. If you’re feeling ambitious, you could try designing a jumper on the ActivPanel then creating it in the classroom!
Settle in for a favourite Christmas flick
Christmas movies are undeniably crowd pleasers, and the ActivPanel offers a sizable viewing screen. But you don’t have to feel guilty that students aren’t learning anything from the experience. Plenty of festive favourites can be spun with an educational angle with many moral lessons to be discussed.
We’ve selected five Christmas films for you to choose from to both excite and educate students:
- A Christmas Carol (2009)
- Nightmare before Christmas (1993)
- Frozen (2013)
- How the Grinch stole Christmas (2000)
- It’s a Wonderful Life (1947)
Students can either be given worksheets to complete during viewing to identify themes and motifs throughout the film, or the class can come together after watching to discuss different character types, plots and subplots they recognise.
This list is just a few to get you started, but there is a wide range of Christmas films whose narratives have a meaningful prerogative suitable for the classroom. No matter the Christmas activity you may choose, Promethean hopes that you have a very Merry Christmas and an especially Happy New Year. We look forward to welcoming in the year 2023 and sharing our edtech New Year’s resolutions – stay tuned!