1-2-3 Come Countdown To Christmas With Me!

Counting down is a great way to help your students practice counting backwards, as well as visually being able to "see" the passage of time, which is a rather abstract concept for young children.

My Countingdown To Christmas Craftivity packet includes a variety of quick, easy and interesting ways for your kiddos to countdown to Christmas.

I've included a file folder cover, which your students can decorate, to keep all of their countdown work in.

Since there's a nice variety of options, why not have them do a countdown that they can color, another they bingo dot, and finally, one that they earn stickers for.

I’ve also included a Christmas tree and Santa’s beard countdown activity, where students snip off a section each day. (Let's "trim" the tree & Santa's beard.)

After the last one is gone, children have a paper ornament to hang on their tree.

Snipping paper is a super-fun way for kiddos to strengthen finger and hand muscles too.

The "fingerprint" keepsake wreath, is another fun way to keep track of time, and comes with a sweet poem for the center. 

Children keep their work in the folder and take it out each day to countdown.

Only takes a few minutes, and frees you up to do some pull-out activities.

Send the folder home on the last day before vacation, so students can finish their countdown at home.

Finally, I’ve also included a “How many days until vacation?” Countdown paper chain that you can suspend from the ceiling by your calendar.

I review all sorts of math skills in just a few minutes, with this festive decoration.

Click on the link to zip on over to my TpT shop to take a look at the Countingdown To Christmas Craftivities.

If you do Elf on a Shelf you may like the "Elf Help" countdown craftivity.

Have your students color the elf's "stockings" in an ABAB pattern to reinforce patterning. 

I've included a traceable calendar of December, for years 2015-2017, with a blank one if you want students to fill in their own.

Tracing and writing the numbers as they countdown to Christmas, is also a fun way to practice numbers, as well as have a visual of "time passing".   Click on the link to check out the Elf on a Shelf countdown craftivity.

Today's featured FREEBIE is also a countdown activity. I put "Santa" on my whiteboard and we do "You Can Count on Santa" during our calendar time. 

Simply print off the poster on card stock, color, then choose a different child each day to pull apart a cottonball, and glue it to that number on Santa's beard.

Well that's it for today, have to make a mad dash to the store to get a few things before everything closes up for Thanksgiving.

Wishing you a day filled with many joy-filled moments.

 "If men liked shopping, they'd call it research."  ~Cynthia Nelms

9 pages.

Choose one of these Christmas countdown activities, or give your students a choice.  These craftivities are wonderful fine motor practice. Scissor "snipping" helps strengthen children's finger muscles.  They'll enjoy counting down to Christmas day as they "trim" the tree or Santa's beard. 

1-2-3 Come Countdown To Christmas With Me

One of the things that I realized rather quickly, during the 10 years that I taught Y5's, was that younger children don't have a real good grasp of time.  To help my kiddos with this, I did all sorts of calendar activities, so that they could visulalize the passage of time.

Counting down the days of each month, was extremely helpful.  For holiday months, this was especially nice, because it dispensed with the "When is?" questions.  "When is vacation, the party, fieldtrip..." or other special activities that they were looking forward to.

With that in mind, I decided to design a bunch of countdown to Christmas activities. These are simple, quick and easy, so you can choose several.  They are fun independent activities that children can work on a few minutes each day, freeing you up to work one-on-one with students.  

Each month I displayed a different countdown paper chain from the ceiling.  I chose 2 to 3 different colors (appropriate for that month) to make the links out of, so we could review colors as well as patterning. 

You can make the countdown to Christmas gingerbread paper chain craftivity for your class, or have students each make their own, to take home for more practice.  I used white puffy paint (for frosting) and a plaid ribbon bow for extra pizzazz. 

"You Can Count On Santa" is another fun visual for your students. 

As with the gingerbread craft, you can simply make one for your classroom for calendar time, or run off copies for students to make one of their own. 

Using a glue dot, children add a cotton ball to fill in Santa's beard.  This is not my original idea, although I've been doing it long before the Internet.  I love drawing Santa, and hope you like my version. 

Since the Elf On A Shelf story has become a super-fun classroom management tool, I decided to make an elf-themed countdown craftivity as well. 

As students countdown to Christmas, they trace and write the numbers and then color each section of the elf's stockings in an ABAB pattern.  I added flat-backed jewels and mini pom poms for that finishing touch. 

Since jewels are an especially "big deal" to little ones, you can use them as an incentive:  Stay focused and complete your work and earn a bit of dazzle for your countdown elf. 

1-2-3 Countdown To Christmas Alphabetically,  is one of my favorites. 

It's an alphabet booklet.  Students trace and write the letters, as well as the Christmas-themed words. 

They color the letter and picture, then write another word that also begins with that letter.  There are so many options for Christmas-related words, you can easily request that the extra words also need to be about Christmas.

Starting December 1st, have students complete one letter.  Since there are only 25 days 'til Christmas, remind students to complete letters Y and Z on the last day.

For more alphabet reinforcement, the packet also includes 10 worksheets, to help practice writing upper and lowercase letters, putting words in alphabetical order, skip counting the 24 days 'til Christmas by 2's, as well as practicing writing numbers to 31 (The number of days in the month.)

The worksheet in the photo, asks students "What Lowercase Letter Is Missing?"  There are also two "I Spy" game worksheets. 

Click on the link to view/download the Countdown to Christmas Alphabet packet.

Since my Y5's needed lots of scissor practice, I designed two countdown activities, where students snip off the days 'til Christmas. 

The "Trim the Tree" scissor-snipping countdown craftivity, is my own idea, however, cutting off Santa's beard, was an idea I found dozens of versions of, on Pinterest. 

I felt that Santa still needed a beard for his Christmas Eve adventures, so I revamped the concept, and designed a "Snipit Santa."  

Both the Christmas tree and Santa, when completely trimmed, make cute paper ornaments or gift tags.

Click on the link to view/download the Let's Trim the Tree & Santa's Beard Christmas countdown - scissor practice craftivities.

Finally, if you're just looking for something super-simple for your little ones to do, as a countdown activity, click on the link for some Countdown To Christmas Coloring Pages.

I've included a cute gingerbread house cover, for a Christmas countdown file folder, so students can keep all of their countdown activities in one place.

I'd include one that they can color, one they use a bingo dauber on (dotting the days away), one they can earn stickers for, plus a scissor snipping option.  These worksheets only take a few minutes, and because kiddos can work independently, you are freed up to work one-on-one with students.

That's it for today.  I hope you found something here that you can use to help your students understand the concept of time passing.

My grama Lydia used to say that the older she got the more quickly time passed.  Now that I'm enjoying my "golden years" I find that to be truer than true.  Wishing you a peaceful, savor-each-moment kind of day.

"How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?" -Dr. Seuss