The run up to Christmas can feel like it is a continuous GO GO GO. That’s why, last year we asked Teacher Tappers to share their favourite Christmas-themed activities, so we could share with you this year ahead of the last week of term madness.
As always, the Tappers didn’t let us down, and an absolutely astonishing 3,804 of you wrote in 🤯 Here are our favourite choices, subject by subject, for you to use!
Maths
1. Reindeer Rescue Challenge: The Tapper who wrote in to tell us about this activity told us it was explained as a “Race to save Christmas” where the class is set up on a “problem-solving activity where students must solve maths problems covering perimeter, area, volume, trigonometry, and quadratics to find where each reindeer is located”. It sounds fun, but also full of lots of useful learning.
2. Creating Fractals using Pascal’s Triangle: There is LOADS of maths in this activity, a Tapper wrote in to tell us they do an activity where they “link the 12 days of Christmas to Pascal’s triangle” and then “use that concept to create fractal Christmas trees”.
Other maths teachers wrote in to tell us about how they do festive mathematical activities, including “constructing a fractal snowflake” using a ruler and compass, and “making Sierpinski tetrahedron Christmas trees”.
English
1. Dragon’s Den Style Pitch: Oracy is back on the top of the curriculum focus list, making this the perfect Christmas fun activity: students take part in a “Dragons Den style Speaking and Listening (S&L) project” the Teacher Tapper who wrote in about this task said they put them in “groups to design an item to help out at Christmas and then write and perform a pitch to ‘win’ the investment”.
2. Brussel Sprouts Target Practice: An English teacher made this suggestion, but although we struggled to find the link between this activity and the subject of English, we decided to include it anyway because it sounds fun. Students play a game where they “throw Brussel sprouts at a chocolate Santa”; the first one to knock it down wins. This gets the Teacher Tapp thumbs up so long as you keep the Brussel sprouts and cook them later.
Science
1. The Christmas Cookie Mystery: For any budding CSI wannabes, this activity sees students act as detectives, using “chemical tests to sort out ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder) mixed up by elves (e.g., using vinegar to check for fizzing or Benedict’s test for sugar)”.
2. Christmas Cracker Physics and Chemistry: Now, did you realise very important chemistry reactions were taking place round every Christmas dinner table? Of course the science Tappers do! This suggestion from from a physics teacher, and it’s a pretty advanced activity that involves students trying to “measure the force on a Christmas cracker”, THEN calculating the “bond energies in silver fulminate” (the explosive in crackers), and finally attempting to “measure the latent heat of chocolate”.
Humanities
1. Forensic Psychology Who-Dunnit: A Forensic Psychology lesson involving a Christmas who-dunnit activity on who killed Santa set in the school, utilizing students’ knowledge of offender profiling.
2. Psychologist Christmas Jumpers: A psychology Tapper told us about a jumper themed activity: “Students design Christmas jumpers to reflect and be worn by the psychologists they have studied”. Over in the classics department, a Tapper told us that they have their students singing the ‘12 labours of Heracles’ to the tune of ‘12 days of Christmas’. Never let it be said that you can’t have fun at Christmas in a secondary school!
Art (including D&T)
1. Distorted Bauble Portraits: This was one of our favourite suggestions. An art Tapper wrote in to say they had their students “drawing their face as if peering into a Christmas bauble”. They gave them a “limited palette of colours” and “incorporated metal drawing pins as tiny convex mirrors” to demonstrate distortion. This sounds like a brilliant mix of a really useful learning task AND Christmas fun!
2. E-textiles Santa Suit Design: Here is one activity you wouldn’t get at your traditional grotto: create a new Santa suit using “e-textiles” e.g. cables, wires etc. If that doesn’t work for your students, other Tappers suggested “laser cutting plywood baubles or icicles” and then “heating and twisting the icicles in a polymer oven”. If you try this – do send in the photos of your results!
PE
1. Festive dodgeball was mentioned more than once…but with no explanation as to what it was! We did a quick search and found lots of videos depicting dodgeball…but with tinsel and santa hats!
2. Christmas Crocodiles Rope Game: A PE teacher wrote in to say their students enjoy “playing Christmas Crocodiles”, which is described as a “rope swinging game”. After all, crocodiles are known for their important role in the nativity story, so I can see why this works…
And just for fun
These aren’t linked to any particular subject, but just sounded fun!
Christmas Correlations (After Eights): An unusual activity involves “measuring if there is a relationship (correlation) between the length of a person’s face and how long it takes to get an After Eight chocolate from their forehead to their mouth”.
Thank you cards were suggested several times by teachers, who told us they had students making Christmas cards and then writing thank you notes for members of staff, a nice way to celebrate a bit of Christmas cheer.
Do you have more suggestions? Do write in and share your favourites! Email us england@teachertapp.co.uk and tell us your favourite festive activities.
