The holiday season is on its way here again and you know what that means, teachers will be scrambling to keep their students focused on their work instead of the excited times of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is the time when teachers must be creative and turn to fun activities to keep their students entertained, yet still learning. There are many resources that help educators find educational lesson plans during the holiday season, yet let the children have fun and not get overwhelmed by learning new material.

There has been a lot of controversy over whether schools should be allowed to celebrate holidays due to various reasons such as some children celebrating different holidays or having religious differences; however, schools have done a good job letting students still have fun and celebrating through “fall” or “winter” activities. One good thing about taking a break from the typical curriculum material is that students can focus on a variety of art whether it is creating music, making arts and crafts, or watching educational videos.

For Halloween, many schools host a costume parade where all of the students walk around in the hallways showing off their costumes for the entire school. Others actually allow students to dress up and go trick or treating from classroom to classroom. Have students bring in a bag of candy for their classroom and while they go around the school, the teachers will stay in their classrooms passing out candy. Other schools have fall festivals on Halloween night with rides, games such as bobbing for apples, face painting, pumpkin carving contests and more.

If schools do not want children to wear traditional costumes, have them dress up in their favorite book character and have them present a short presentation on the book and why they chose to dress up as that character. You can also do a history lesson about how Halloween came about, or why children began trick or treating. Another fun activity is teaching your students about different textures. Have six or seven different materials that each students touches. Each student writes down their guesses on a piece of paper, such as a human brain (a bowl of noodles) or a werewolf’s fur (a furry piece of fabric).

During Thanksgiving time, teachers can create a number of education activities for their students besides the traditional turkey hand or pilgrim hat. This holiday gives educators the perfect opportunity to have students focus on their writing skills. Have them write letters to their parents or relatives about what they are thankful for, or have them write a story about what they think it would be like being a pilgrim on the Mayflower. History lessons are always a must during Thanksgiving. Teachers have students act out various events of what happened during the First Thanksgiving. » Read more: Holiday Tricks To Keep Students Learning