Holiday Games for PreK-5: Plugged and Unplugged

I created a poster for teachers to print and share with students. It includes QR Codes for students to scan with their iPads. The games are pulled from the Santa Tracker website hosted by Google and are great activities for when you want to let students have a little fun while building on STEAM skills. Some of the games involve design thinking and coding as an added bonus. Click Here for the  printable poster.






Looking for some UNPLUGGED fun? Click Here to find a printable decorating a Christmas Tree coding activities, an unplugged stacking cups project Click Here, or a drawing a Nutcracker unplugged coding project. Click Here

You can find more of these wonderful activities at https://jdaniel4smom.com/ She has a great coloring page for The Polar Express.

 





Visit my website for some more great online Holiday activities and games that includes Hanukah and Kwanza. Click Here Students can also Google Search Mrs Gleason and the link to my website is usually the top link suggested. Find the Holiday Fun page under the student tab.


 

Fun Digital Holiday Projects

***Scroll down for a variety of projects students can do to create digital Holiday Greetings for their parents. Have students use Seesaw or Class Dojo to easily share their project with their parents. As an alternative you can have students airdrop their project to you and then email the projects to the parents. All video Tutorials below are student friendly. Merry Creating!!!    

 

Create an Ugly Sweater, Decorate a Christmas Tree, 

and Reindeer Yourself Using PicEDU

Student Examples:

Tutorial Video: (Use the same process for the other two projects.)

Make a Greeting Card with Green Screen

Student Examples:

Tutorial Video: (Take a green screen photo with the iPad camera and save images from safari before using the green screen app.)

Or Make a Green Screen Video: (This example is for Valentine's Day. Just switch it up for Christmas.)

 

Create and Print 3D Ornaments

Student Examples:

Teacher Example:

Tutorial Video: (This project is one that you will probably want to have me help you with, but if you want to do part of it on your own... have students create their ornaments in Google Slides using shapes or in Book Creator using the Magic Pen, I can help with the rest. Of course I'm willing to help with the whole process as well.)

Tell a Story Using ChatterPix and Student Art

Student Example:

Tutorial Video:

 

Decorate a Snowman in Google Slides and Make it Talk Using ChatterPix Kids

Student Examples:

Link to the Project: Click Here (Have students make a copy in Google Drive and then they can decorate their own snowman.)


Tutorial Video: (On an iPad students will hold down on an image with a finger, click copy, and then go to the snowman slide and hold down their finger. Click paste.)

Create a Holiday Poem with Adobe Spark Video

Student Examples:

Tutorial Video:

Hour of Code Resources 2019

The Hour of Code event that takes place during Computer Science Education Week (December 9-15 this year) is worth setting aside some classroom time for students to explore coding via apps or websites. Learning to code will help students in a variety of skills including, reading, writing, math, and design thinking. This article will host a variety of resources for you to enjoy a successful Hour of Code in your classroom. For a printable flyer for your classroom click the pic below. The QR Code will direct students to my Hour of Code page on my website that hosts a variety of Hour of Code activities. You can have students download any of the suggested apps from the flyer or use any of the code.org coding games linked on my website.

 

It is not necessary to participate in the Hour of Code all in one day. Feel free to break the hour up throughout the week. Also, because students love learning to code you can use the apps and website coding games as incentives throughout the rest of the school year. I have yet to walk into a classroom of students learning to code who are not completely engaged. My schools have participated in this event since the very first year of Hour of Code. 

Debugging is one of the most important lessons of coding and students who can debug can solve a variety of problems they come across in any subject. Below are some resources for teaching debugging.