What do you do with your kiddos during those pesky transition times? Arrival time, transitions between activities, waiting to line up, waiting to use the restroom, waiting to wash their hands. These are the times that can drive a teacher BANANAS!!! Am I right?? That’s exactly why I love, love, LOVE busy boxes so much! They are quick, easy activities that your kiddos can do independently and quietly. (OK, let’s be honest… It’s preschool, so “quiet” is a very relative term! But, you get the drift!) If you have them easily accessible, your kiddos can grab one whenever you’ve got a few minutes of down time. And, these Christmas busy boxes are so adorable, they won’t be able to keep their hands off of them!
These 10 Christmas busy box ideas are ready to print and easy to prep! (Well, a couple of them do require quite a bit of cutting, but they are so cute in the end, I think it’s totally worth it!) If you really want to streamline your prep time, you’ll definitely want to have a few things on hand:
- personal laminator (I’m a [amazon_textlink asin=’B0010JEJPC’ text=’Scotch brand’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’mrsasroom-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’18bcd071-f703-11e8-9409-09b535e95eb3′] snob here.)
- laminating sleeves (I love [amazon_textlink asin=’B07B1JTCZB’ text=’Fellowes brand’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’mrsasroom-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’2d20b22d-f703-11e8-821a-516191a1ae4b’] because they are inexpensive and the work with dry erase markers.)
- paper cutter (I just got [amazon_textlink asin=’B0038F1A0S’ text=’this one from Fiskars’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’mrsasroom-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’40497af3-f703-11e8-a936-c59296c82fde’], and I LOVE it!)
- a good pair of scissors ([amazon_textlink asin=’B00006IFN9′ text=’Fiskars’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’mrsasroom-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’48c0d6c5-f703-11e8-a2d3-bfe8e14cfdd1′] for the win again!)
Now let’s get to the good stuff!! The busy box activities!!
Christmas Letter Tracing
This activity is so simple and so FUN! Your kiddos can practice writing their letters over and over again! Here’s a hint: If you really want to get their fine motor muscles working, give them pom poms as erasers. They’ll have to use their pinching fingers to hold them while they’re erasing!
Christmas Letter Matching
These adorable puzzles give your kiddos the chance to practice matching uppercase and lowercase letters. You can make them self-checking by putting matching stickers on the backs of the puzzle pieces, or you can even just draw colored dots to keep it super simple! Here’s a hint for prepping this one: laminate the puzzles BEFORE you cut them out so that pieces fit together!
Christmas Letter Punch
This is one of my favorite letter recognition activities! I really love them when they’re printed on colored paper. It’s just makes the busy box so much more festive! Throw in a hole punch with these cute punch cards, and you’re ready to go!
If you really want make this cute, give your kiddos a fun holiday-shaped hole punch! They will love to use it, and if you have them save the shapes they punch out, you’ll have holiday confetti to use for a craft later!
I got this fun Christmas tree punch in a huge set of paper punches because I have to have ALL the shapes!! (Click the picture to go grab a set!)
Christmas Letter Sounds Puzzles
These cute puzzles are super fun and super easy to prep! The zig zags are a little more difficult to cut, but they really aren’t bad. And, it’s totally worth the effort! (Just make sure you laminate them so you can use them over and over again!) Your kiddos will love to match the uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and beginning sound pictures. (The X picture is an ending sound.)
Christmas Name Building
I absolutely love name building busy boxes! This one is EDITABLE, so you can type all of your kiddos’ names onto the Christmas trees. Cut out the lights that you need, and you’re ready to go! (There are even Spanish characters and special characters included, so you’ll be able to spell any name on your class list!) But, here’s what I really love about this… Because it’s editable, you can type in any words that you want your kiddos to practice spelling! Want them to work on sight words? Type in sight words! Want them to work on theme words? Type in theme words! Want them to work on word families? Type in word families! You can use it for anything! I happen to love it for names, but that doesn’t mean you have to use it for that! (The font I used for this is called Pond Kinder, and you can get it HERE.)
Christmas Number Tracing
This one is just as cute as the letter tracing, but your kiddos will be working on their numbers. You’ll want to use pom poms as erasers for this one, too. And, make sure you use the [amazon_textlink asin=’B000J09OLM’ text=’low-odor Expo markers’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’mrsasroom-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c7dd1502-f771-11e8-8246-bb9cdf597625′]. (I am a TOTAL Expo snob! I just won’t even use any other kind of dry erase markers!)
Christmas Counting
This fun counting game is all about Christmas stockings! Ten different fireplaces are labeled with the numbers 1-10. And there are four different stockings for each fireplace. Your kiddos will get lots of practice counting fingers, candies, dice, and cubes while they are matching the sets to the right numbers.
Christmas Play Dough Counting
How cute is this one??? Your kiddos will love rolling out their play dough to make the numbers and to decorate the Christmas trees! Plus, they can use the ten frames if they need a little extra support with counting! If you want to keep it a little easier to clean up, you can always add pom poms, buttons, gems, or mini erasers instead of play dough. But… if you use play dough, I definitely recommend [amazon_textlink asin=’B00JM5GZGW’ text=’these itty bitty ones’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’mrsasroom-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’3969bab8-f773-11e8-b77c-7595e1a6f515′]! They fit inside of a pencil box so each kiddo can have her own without having to get up to go get it!
Christmas Measuring
Measuring is something that can be so hard for little ones to grasp. So, I have always tried to give them as many opportunities to practice as possible! These fun Christmas images can be measured with cubes, mini erasers, paper clips, or the rulers that are included in the file! Honestly, you can grab any manipulative you have on hand and add it to this busy box. Just make sure the objects you use are all the same size!
Christmas Color Sorting
All the different color Santas need their Christmas items back! And, your kiddos need to sort them out to get them back to the Santas they belong to! Your little ones who need to practice identifying and matching colors will love this simple game!
There are four different Christmas images in each color and nine different colors to work with. Plus, this one is SUPER easy to prep! With a paper cutter, you can have these cut out in just a few minutes!
Christmas Busy Boxes Bundle
So, by now (hopefully!) you’re thinking, OK Stephanie, just tell me how to get these! I want to get them so I can use them in my class this week! Well… that is super easy to do! Just click the product cover to grab your set in my TPT store!
Want some more good news??? I’ve got Christmas circle time games too! Just go check out this blog post to read all about them!
I hope your kiddos loves these busy box activities as much as mine always have! I’d love to hear about it after you’ve used them! Let me know what you think!
Happy Teaching!!
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