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Happy Holidays!

We wish you a safe and happy holiday season! This week we feature resources to celebrate a variety of holidays, starting with Christmas. 

Grades K-6

Santa's Village and Tracker

Don't miss Santa's Village featuring a Santa Tracker for Christmas Eve along with an advent calendar full of surprises. The calendar features change each year. Examples of activities include coding games, holiday games, logic, and more.

Grades 2-8

The Giving Tree Lesson

A TeachersFirst original, this lesson is based on Shel Silverstein's book, The Giving Tree. Inspire students to think about others, giving, and the Christmas spirit. Although the lesson is designed for grades 2-8, it can be adapted for other grades.

Grades K-7

NorthPole.com

NorthPole has games for concentration, word searches, counting money, telling time, mazes, and even checkers with Santa! Attend the Elf Academy, read stories about your elf, send animated Christmas postcards, find maker activities, and more.

Grades K-8

Learning with Santa Tracker

Explore the many games and lesson plans tailor-made for December holidays. Choose from games for social studies, language, computer science, and geography. Games include topics like coding, learning other languages, and understanding maps.

Celebrate Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is celebrated December 26th - January 1st. Discover resources to learn about the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa, to read about the founder, and to find interactive games.

Grades K-5

Kwanzaa for Kids

Celebrate African-American culture and heritage in your classroom and learn about Kwanzaa with this interactive site. There are informative games and printable pages, including coloring pages and interactive puzzles.

Grades K-5

Kwanzaa

This site offers engaging crafts and information related to Kwanzaa. Build a handprint Kinara, woven mat, an African drum, a Unity Cup, and much more. Use the crafts to help young students understand Kwanzaa. Share these crafts on your class website.

Grades K-12

The Kwanzaa Web Site

Kwanzaa is celebrating its 52nd anniversary. Learn about Kwanzaa from the man who started it all, Dr. Maulana Karenga. Find information about the Seven Principles, meditation, and activities to share with your students.

Grades K-6

"Gifts of Character" Read-Alouds

Shine a light on character traits typically associated with the holiday season--generosity, benevolence, philanthropy, compassion, service, and kindness. Select and share stories from this curated list of books and accompanying activities.

Celebrate a New Year in the Classroom

Happy New Year! Featured below are four tools for a successful new year. Teach students about dates that matter, find vocabulary related to New Year's resolutions, write a letter to your future self, and get organized with an online to do list!

Grades 4-12

New Year's Resolutions

Make vocabulary fun with New Year's-themed activities. Find printable crosswords, fill in the blanks, and more that feature words related to New Year's Resolutions. And, explore the other themes for vocabulary fun all year long!

Grades K-12

Future Me - Write a Letter to the Future

Write an email about your New Year's goals and have it delivered in the future (up to 50 years later). Insert your email address, subject, and message. Add images if you wish. Choose a future date for delivery and it's ready to go!

Grades 5-12

Dates that Matter

What makes today matter? Click to see a sequence of thought-provoking questions/clues that guide students as they try to guess the event. When the historical event is revealed, read about why it matters.

Grades 4-12

Todoist

Start the New Year prepared and organized with this online to do list maker. Set recurring due dates, create projects and sub-tasks, prioritize items, collaborate with others, and more. Todoist is device agnostic meaning it will work on any device!

This Week at TeachersFirst

While there will not be a new TeachersFirst Update on December 30th, there is plenty to explore and discover. We encourage you to visit our blog, Infusing Technology, to read the latest posts; be among the first to register for free, virtual professional learning; and tell us about holiday decorations at your school in our final poll of 2018.