#351 – Holiday Tech Fun: Activities for Your Classroom

#351 — Holiday Tech Fun Activities for Your Classroom

AVID Open Access
6 min

Keywords
holiday tech activities, classroom incentives, holiday story sharing, holiday trivia, virtual playlists, coding animations, green screen projects, holiday cards, digital storybooks, holiday podcasts, digital art contest, classroom decoration, student involvement, holiday celebration, tech resources

Transcript

Paul Beckermann 0:01
Welcome to Tech Talk for Teachers. I’m your host, Paul Beckerman.

Transition Music 0:06
Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What’s in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what’s in the toolkit? Check it out.

Paul Beckermann 0:16
The topic of today’s episode is Holiday Tech Fun: Activities for Your Classroom. The holidays can bring a lot of extra energy to your classroom. That can be a good thing, and it can also be challenging. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have some fun classroom activities in your back pocket. You can use these as incentives, rewards, activities for extra time at the end of the class period, a way to build classroom community, or a fun way to celebrate the holiday season. Whatever your need, here are a few tech-powered activities you may want to consider having ready just in case you need them.

Transition Music 0:51
How do I use it? Integration inspiration. Integration ideas.

Paul Beckermann 0:57
Number one, share your holiday story. I talked about this one in last week’s episode. If you missed it or want to hear it again, check out Episode 349 of Tech Talk for Teachers, “Sharing Your Holiday Story.” It includes fun ways to give your students a voice in sharing their personal holiday experiences and traditions.

Number two, holiday trivia. For this one, you can pick your favorite quiz tool, Kahoot, Quizizz, Socrative, Quizlet. They’re all great choices. With many of these, you can find holiday quizzes that are already created and saved in public collections of quizzes. If you can’t find one that’s already made to use, I suggest involving your students in the process. Have them generate the quiz questions and answers. They can do this individually or in groups. Not only does it get kids actively involved, but it gives them a sense of ownership in the activity, and it allows them to build questions that pertain to their own interests and experiences. It’s also a great way to make sure every student in your room feels like their holiday celebration of choice is acknowledged and seen.

Number three, virtual classroom playlists. Have each student’s pick a holiday song or a winter-themed music piece to add to a collaborative playlist on platforms like Spotify or YouTube. It’s a great way to celebrate diversity, and you can have each student explain why they chose their song or share how it connects to their personal traditions. It’s also a clever way to get at those public speaking and communication standards in a fun way.

Number four, coding holiday animations. Platforms like Scratch or Code.org offer holiday-themed coding projects that you can use for free in your classroom. With these sites, students can create animated winter scenes or simple holiday games and explore coding fundamentals while designing something festive. This can be a nice extension of CSEdWeek and Hour of Code activities.

Number five, Green Screen Winter Wonderland. Using green screen apps like Do Ink or most video editing suites like iMovie, students can transport themselves to a winter wonderland, a holiday market or even the North Pole. They can create a short video sharing holiday stories, favorite traditions, or even a holiday weather report. Students have so much fun when they create these and it’s really rewarding to see the final products. You might choose to show the finished videos during a holiday party or reward day before winter break.

Number six, create holiday cards. Tools like Canva and Adobe Express are perfect for this. In fact, I did an episode of Tech Talk for teachers on this during Thanksgiving. You can check out Episode 343, for more details. Students could create greeting cards for their families, classmates, or favorite teachers. It can be a great way to get students celebrating the season, being creative, and spreading positive energy.

Number seven, digital holiday storybooks. Have students write and create their own holiday-themed stories using digital storytelling tools like Book Creator or StoryJumper. Encourage them to use their imaginations and bring in personal interests. When they’re finished, you might consider having them share these with another classroom, or perhaps reading them to younger students. It can be a great way to bring in an authentic audience to the experience.

Number eight, Holiday Podcast Episode. Why not have the students do a podcast? They’re relatively easy to create and give students a chance to use their voice. You could have students create short holiday-themed audio stories or interviews and record them using simple recording tools like Audacity, Sound Trap, Garage Band or audio recorders in apps like Seesaw. They can discuss their favorite traditions, tell winter jokes, or even create a holiday news report.

Number nine, Winter Digital Art Contest. Host a digital art contest where students create holiday or winter scenes and then showcase their art in a virtual gallery. You can use tools as simple as Google Slides or Drawings, suites of tools like Canva and Adobe Express, drawing tools and apps like SeeSaw, or digital whiteboards like whiteboard.fi or ziteboard.com. There’s so many creative tools available, and your students probably know of some that you haven’t even heard of yet. Don’t be afraid to ask them for ideas.

And number 10, decorate your room. It’s important that students see themselves in the space where they’re learning and connecting. One really effective way to make sure that happens is to involve them in decorating the classroom space. This might be a section of a bulletin board set aside for the holiday season. It could be a wall that has some bare space that you want to fill. Maybe it’s each student’s desktop. It could include art hanging from strings tacked to the ceiling, or possibly even art taped to the windows. Again, you can involve your students in the planning of this. They will feel empowered and probably excited to be a part of it.

Whatever you choose, I hope you have fun and get a chance to connect with your students in a fun way. I also want to extend a warm and happy holiday season to each of you. May you find time to rest, connect with the ones you love, and find joy. You do amazing work, and you deserve it.

To learn more about today’s topic and explore other free resources, visit AvidOpenAccess.org. And of course, be sure to join Rena, Winston, and me every Wednesday for our full-length podcast, Unpacking Education, where we’re joined by exceptional guests and explore education topics that are important to you. Thanks for listening, take care, and thanks for all you do. You make a difference.