As you approach one of your family’s most eagerly awaited occasions of the year, Christmas, excitement, and happiness are in the air. Families with small children feel it is especially important to establish happy memories and events now. Children of this age essentially have no expectations. Therefore, incorporating different values and traditions is easy during this stage of their lives.
Montessori Christmas Activities For Kids Aged 3 To 5
Montessori Christmas activities are wonderful ways to organize your preschool’s holiday theme. These games are geared toward children between the ages of 3 and 5, although many of them can be adjusted for older and younger kids.
#1 Basket Of Holiday Treasures
A treasure basket is one of many Montessori-aligned sensory Christmas activities that you can complete with your preschooler. Gather a collection of random items—typically 15–20—found all over the house. The activity’s main goal is to allow the baby to explore and learn independently
Image source: https://www.pinterest.com
The basket’s contents should engage all five senses—sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell—and be composed of various materials, ideally natural ones. Baby-oriented activities should constantly be watched for safety reasons.
#2 Stacking Gifts
This game makes it easy for infants to start stacking and knocking things down. For these, you can wrap plain ornament boxes. Using pieces with diverse forms, flat tops, and bottoms could introduce a fresh dimension to stacking.
Image source: https://handreamy.com
#3 Exploring Ornaments
How frequently do tiny ones desire to explore Christmas decorations? This activity allows infants to explore ornaments securely. For the kid to investigate, pick 4 to 6 ornaments with various weights, sizes, and textures. Your youngster loves to engage in this fun exercise as they move the ornament repeatedly, fascinated by its bling in their tiny hands.
#4 Bells And Sensory Sounds
Bring all of your bells together, and let your child hear the variety of sounds they may produce! This is a terrific Montessori Christmas activity if your youngster can sit independently.
Check out our article on The 12 Most Wonderful Montessori Toys for 1-Year-Olds
#5 Christmas Carol Or Poem
Sing a Christmas carol or recite a poem, especially for your youngest child, to establish a connection with them. You can read Christmas poems such as “Love Came Down at Christmas” by Christina Rossetti. In December, most families will study it together.
#6 Christmas Tree Playdough Tray
Image Source: https://www.fun365.orientaltrading.com
A playdough craft with themed cookie cutters for Christmas is a wonderful finger exercise for young children. Make patterns for prints using organic materials like seeds and acorns.
#7 Tree Decorating: Practice Fine Motor Skills
Use a miniature Christmas tree and arrange a diversified tray of ornaments to hang from the tree’s branches. This Montessori Christmas exercise strengthens the hands’ fine motor skills. To carefully unlatch the ornament’s looped rope or ribbon and hang it up demands focus and good hand-eye coordination.
#8 Holiday Tree Made Of Felt
Smaller children who are unable to tie knots yet can utilize this. They can be given a felt tree cut out with ornaments hanging from it. The ornaments can differ by type, color, and other factors. Children ages 2 and 3 can benefit most from this activity since it improves their spatial visualization and attentiveness.
#9 Christmas Popcorn Garlands
Try it with some popcorn and possibly even cranberries. Children who can still not handle a needle can assist adults in building the garland because it entails stringing needles.
#10 Christmas Tree Hand Embroidery
For the embroidery project, you can trace the contour of the tree along both surfaces of the fabric so that the stitchers will know where to place the needle. On a loosely woven material, use a blunt needle and thick yarn. It is the ideal approach to get kids interested in sewing. You may choose a running stitch or any other basic embroidery stitch, such as the chain stitch.
Check out our article on Easy DIY Montessori Toys and Activities for 3-Year-Olds
#11 Bake Holiday-Themed Cookies
Kids can help you measure and mix the cookie batter and learn to incorporate ingredients like chocolate chips, cinnamon, coconut, or even food coloring. Choose some cookie cutters with seasonal designs, then let your kid pretend to be a pastry chef. Even special holiday plates can be used to serve festive sweets.
#12 Custom Gift Tags
Make unique Christmas present tags that the children will be proud to display. Use construction paper, vintage cards, and other unique embellishments like lace or beads. Cut out the shapes and then layer them together for a set of unique tags to attach to the presents beneath the tree.
#13 Paint Ornaments
Encourage the children to get their paintbrushes out and decorate simple ornaments. Make sure the area you’re painting is prepared to handle the mess. And if you have young ones who are likely to break things, think about purchasing a bunch of Styrofoam balls and creating break-resistant ornaments by threading a ribbon through the top.
#14 Matching Christmas Scent Bottles To Objects
Similar to the toddler section’s Experiencing Christmas Fragrances, we’re now matching the fragrances to the objects. Matching the smells to the graphic cards is a further extension.
Scents like cinnamon, peppermint, clove, vanilla, wintergreen, and sweet orange are among the ones you can utilize.
#15 Mint-Flavored Sand Tray
This is a great Montessori technique to help the youngster experience texture while practicing pre-writing abilities. Add some glitter and peppermint essential oil to give it a festive shimmer.
#16 Block Christmas Tree
This is a straightforward, hands-on Montessori Christmas activity. To create a tree on the ground, use duct tape. To ensure that duct tape won’t damage any of your floors, test it in a tiny area first. Then, encourage your youngster to fill the tree with big blocks like Mega or Duplo blocks.
#17 Paper-Tear Art
Image Source: https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/
This activity strengthens a child’s hands to perform fine motor tasks. Simply rip up some paper on the sticky side of contact paper, trace a tree, and attach it to the wall. You can then simply ask your child to decorate the tree only with ripped pieces of paper and any lightweight items.
#18 Christmas Math Counting and Sorting Activity
Introduce a Montessori-inspired Christmas math activity by setting up a counting and sorting station. Gather a variety of holiday-themed items such as small ornaments, pine cones, or jingle bells, and provide different containers or compartments for organizing.
Encourage the children to sort the items by type, size, or color, and then count how many of each category they have. You can also include number cards for them to match the quantities they’ve counted. This engaging activity promotes number recognition, counting skills, and classification abilities while keeping the festive spirit alive.
#19 Holiday Card Creation
Introduce a delightful holiday card creation activity for the children, blending creativity and literacy skills. First, set up an inviting workspace, complete with a variety of craft supplies such as colorful cardstock, markers, stickers, glitter, and glue. Make sure the area is prepared for any potential mess, and supervise the children throughout the process.
Begin by guiding the preschoolers to write simple festive messages and their names inside the cards, helping them practice letter recognition and formation. Encourage them to think about the recipients and personalize their messages, fostering thoughtfulness and emotional connections.
Next, let their creativity shine as they decorate the cards’ covers. They can draw festive scenes, use stickers, or even create collages with magazine cutouts. To make it extra special, they can add their own handprints or finger paintings for a unique touch.
This holiday card creation activity not only nurtures the children’s fine motor skills and literacy abilities but also teaches them about the joy of giving and the importance of meaningful connections during the holiday season.
#20 Magic Growing Crystal Christmas Tree
Introduce a Christmas science activities with the enchanting Magic Growing Crystal Christmas Tree experiment. This captivating project teaches children about crystal formation and absorption, while sparking their curiosity and wonder.
Place the tree in a shallow dish and carefully pour the magic growing tree solution into the dish, ensuring the cardboard is saturated. Guide the children to observe and record the changes they see over the next few days as the tree “grows” colorful crystal branches.
This mesmerizing activity encourages scientific observation, patience, and a sense of awe as the children witness the magical transformation of their very own crystal Christmas trees.
Conclusion
The most delightful season of the year is Christmas! You can include a variety of fantastic arts, crafts, and educational activities in preschool with a Christmas theme. And it’s just precious to see the amazement and anticipation for the holidays in children’s eyes!
It’s ideal for imparting the Christmas concept during the entire month of December. Children can discuss the customs in their family and learn how other cultures enjoy Christmas and other significant December holidays.