First week of December is a good idea to start introducing this topic in some holiday theme activities. I bet you have your own curriculum to follow, but a little bit of Christmas cheer on each December’s lesson will not cause any harm. As you know, I am absolutely for reading aloud in my classes, so this time of the year give me more excuses to implement books once a week.
Below you will see some Christmas theme books that I usually use in my young learners’ classes. I also added pictures of worksheets made by me as a follow-up to the story. Printable versions of these worksheets will be sent to my subscribers. Do not hesitate and sign in, leave a comment and join the newsletter to get free some free worksheets to the stories presented in this article.
Maisy’s Christmas Eve by Lucy Cousins
This book is definitely one of my favourite Christmas stories. It has amazing colourful pictures and the language is not too easy, yet not tough as well. The story has simple plot with the element of suspense. Friends decided to have a Christmas Eve party at Maisy’s house. They all gathered together and prepare home to look festive, but all of the sudden they realised that one of their friends is missing. They went on a rescue mission. Their cooperation helped Eddie and they celebrated Christmas Eve merrily after all.
While reading idea
I enormously like when children have some kind of special task while I am reading books. With ‘Maisy’s Christmas Eve’ I gave them the task to listen carefully and whenever they hear the word ‘SNOW’ they need to show falling snow with their hands. They have to listen and do, so they stay focus during the whole story.
After reading idea
I present some worksheets with post-reading activities for different age group. Beginners can put pictures in the correct order and label names of the characters. Then they can draw themselves during the Christmas party at Maisy’s.
More advanced pupils can try to fill in missing words from the story. It is up to the teacher to put words to choose from at the top of the exercises.
Santa’s Party Red Nose Books
The cover of the book has a big red fluffy Santa’s nose. It is always touched by children and they want to know the story about him immediately. Santa is having a grand party at his house.He is grateful that everyone from the North Pole have been working so hard to spread the joy of Christmas all over the world.
While reading idea
All kinds of comprehension questions are useful here. Ask about colours of elves clothes, amount of ice roll buns, etc.
After reading idea
Beginners can draw the missing parts of pictures from the book.
The worksheet with some Christmas maths can be also used here. Count the baubles and add some other Christmas ornaments.
More advanced students can think of special menu on the grand party. They need to be creative and design special Christmas dishes, like ‘Holly guacamole’ 😊
The First Christmas A mini pop-up storybook
This is definitely religious book, so not everyone can be glad to use it. However, the nativity play is usually displayed in Polish schools, so it may not be so controversial after all.
The book is 5 paged long and contains the story about birth of baby Jesus.
I like using this book, because it shows true value and the beginning of Christmas. You can take advantage of it as a cross-curricular one. English and RE together.
While reading idea
Comprehension questions again. For instance, why Joseph is sad? Who lives in the stables?
