Making Christmas Crafts in Kindergarten

Making Christmas crafts in kindergarten can either be a nightmare or one of the best parts of celebrating Christmas in your classroom. By picking the right craft and following some simple tips for doing crafts in kindergarten, you can keep the fun parts of crafting, without the added stress. These are some of my best tips for making kindergarten Christmas crafts.

Keep Crafts Simple

One of the most important things to remember when making crafts in kindergarten is to keep crafts simple. For me, that means using simple materials that you usually keep around your classroom like construction paper, popsicle sticks, or even items you have collected. For example, one of my favorite crafts involves using old toilet paper rolls to make Christmas characters like Santa, a reindeer, or even a snowman. 

Keeping crafts simple also means to use templates when possible. For some of my favorite Christmas crafts, I print out the different parts of the craft for my students so all they have to do is color, cut, and assemble. If we were making a Christmas tree craft, I would try to have an outline of a tree available, as well as some different ornaments that students can cut out and glue once they had colored them however they wanted. Keeping crafts simple is going to ensure that students end up with adorable Christmas decorations that don’t involve a headache on your end!

Model the Process 

Another important thing to do when making Christmas crafts in your kindergarten classroom is to model! Sure, it is nice to show students what their craft will look like when completed, but it is even more helpful to show students what it looks like each step of the way.

For example, if we are doing a craft that takes multiple steps, like a paper gingerbread house, I first model coloring the house. After students have a chance to color their own houses, I model using my scissors to carefully cut out the house along with its different parts. Finally, I show students how to correctly put together and glue each part of the gingerbread house and decorate it with the assorted candy pieces. It may take a little extra time and effort on your end to model each step of the process, but I promise, it makes the craft go much more smoothly!

Incorporate Learning 

While this tip doesn’t necessarily help craft time to go more smoothly, it does make the crafts more meaningful to students when you can incorporate their learning. One way you can do this is by doing crafts that go along with Christmas writing prompts. First, students can write about a fun topic like what they would do if Santa got stuck in their chimney. Then, they can create a cute Santa craft to hang alongside their writing template!

Another way you could incorporate your learning into your Christmas crafts is by making crafts that go along with your Christmas around the world unit. After learning about Mexican Christmas traditions, students can create a poinsettia craft. After learning about the tradition of St. Lucia in Sweden, students can make a St. Lucia craft. While making crafts that go along with students’ learning may not necessarily simplify Christmas crafts, it makes it more meaningful to your students!

Anytime you make crafts in kindergarten, whether they are for Christmas or other times of year, it can be difficult to keep students on the same page and make the craft correctly. Hopefully these tips will help you to guide your students to create fantastic Christmas crafts that you can use to decorate your classroom and that parents will love when they get sent home!