Keep Preschoolers Counting WIth Great Christmas Activities: Two Christmas Counting Books & Activities

Keep Preschoolers Counting WIth Great Christmas Activities: Two Christmas Counting Books & Activities
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Snowbear’s Christmas Countdown

In this colorfully illustrated book, Snowbear sees that it is December and starts getting ready for Christmas. The book counts from 1-25, and each day Snowbear does something special to get ready for the holiday. Read the book through once and then work to use some of the activities that Snowbear uses to countdown to Christmas.

On day 4, Snowbear arranged his snowglobes on his mantel. Using glass baby food jars, students can make their own snowglobes. Fill the jar with water, a drop or two of baby oil, and some glitter. On the lid, hot glue small Christmas items like a small tree or tiny beads and ornaments. You may want to have students choose 4 small items to count out since Snowbear did this on day 4. Once the glue is dry, screw the lid back on tightly and tip over so it rests on the lids. You may want to put hot glue around the lid to be sure students do not accidentally open the globe.

On day 5, he makes and mails his Christmas cards. Since it is day 5, have each student make 5 Christmas cards. Provide stamps, stickers, cutouts from old Christmas cards, and colored paper for them to use. Send the cards to a local Nursing home to share with its residents.

On the 7th day, Snowbear makes a snowman. To follow the 7 theme, have them count out 7 black circles to use on their snowman. They can use them as buttons, for eyes, or the mouth. For the circles, either use small white paper plates or provide three white circles.

On the 17th day, he hangs a wreath on his door. This craft may take a little help from parent volunteers, because it is a lot of tracing and cutting. You could send the green paper home and have parents trace and cut at home. Students can trace and cut out 17 handprints from green paper. Cut out the center of a white paper plate to use as the base of your wreath. glue the handprints to the outside of the wreath. You could also have students count out 17 red paper circles or red circle stickers if you can find them. They can add these to the wreath to represent berries.

On the 21st day Snowbear goes caroling. Teach your students the 12 Days of Christmas song.

Counting to Christmas

Counting to Christmas follows a little girl as she prepares for Christmas. Below are three different options for advent countdown

Counting to Christmas

activities to either do in class with your students or to send home.

  1. To make an advent chain, provide your students with these Bible readings and activities (the link offers you a Word doc to download) and 25 strips of red and green paper. Each day with their family, they can do an activity and add a chain to their Advent chain as they count down to Christmas.
  2. Provide students with a cut-out of a Christmas tree and 25 small Christmas stickers. As they complete these daily activities or readings, they add a sticker to the tree.
  3. Using this advent calendar, students complete the activity or assigned Bible reading. They can either choose a small piece of candy from a sack or can just place a sticker on the square as they complete each day. The calendar can be used year after year by just adjusting the dates. This basic calendar may be easy to use in the classroom.

Other Christmas Math Activities

  • Sorting Activity: Print and cut out this mitten pattern from different colored sheets of paper. Have students sort the ornaments by color.
  • Make a pattern: Use the mittens from the sorting activity above as Christmas math activities for preschool to teach your students how to make patterns. Start with a simple ABAB pattern, then introduce more difficult patterns such as AABAAB or ABBAABBA.
  • Counting: You can put numbers on the mittens and provide a line for the students to hang the mittens on. Each students can choose a mitten, and then have them hang the mittens with clothes pins in order from 1-10, or higher depending on the ability level of your class. You can either call students up by number to hang the mittens or have them come up and work as a group to hang the mittens in order.