The holiday season is the perfect time to bring some festive fun into your classroom while keeping students engaged in meaningful learning. Incorporating Christmas story elements into your lessons is a creative way to explore key concepts like characters, setting, plot, and more, all while adding a touch of holiday cheer. Whether you’re teaching with holiday-themed read-alouds or crafting interactive activities, these story elements can help students connect to the material in a memorable way. In this blog post, I’m sharing exciting activities to teach Christmas story elements that will have your students learning and laughing all season long!
Directed Drawing to Reinforce Setting
- Activity: Provide step-by-step instructions for drawing a snowy village, Santa’s workshop, or a cozy Christmas living room. Once students complete their drawings, have them describe their setting using sensory details (e.g., What does it look like? What sounds might you hear? How does it feel?). Pair this activity with a short Christmas story so students can compare their drawings to the book’s descriptions.
Story Elements Gift Boxes
- Activity: Draw a large gift box on the board daily with three smaller gifts in front of it. Label the large box Story Elements and the three smaller boxes Characters, Setting, Events. After every holiday read aloud, choose three students a day to fill in these story elements for that day’s story.
Finding Story Elements in the Class Library
- Activity: Stock your classroom library with Christmas and Holiday books this month. Let students explore each book, discussing with a partner or small group which characters, settings, and events they find in their books. Also do this with your daily read alouds!
- Book Suggestions (Amazon affiliate links):
- The Broken Ornament by Tony DiTerlizzi
- Dasher by Matt Tavares
- Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seifold
- The Grumpy Reindeer by DK
- The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst
- How to Catch an Elf by Adam Wallace
Gingerbread Man Story Elements Craftivity
- Activity: Students will read a passage (or be read to) with a Gingerbread Man retelling. Then, they will focus in on one particular story element for that passage.
- Resource Suggestions:
Kinder & 1st Grade Story Elements
2nd Grade Story Elements
3rd & 4th Grade Story Elements
FREE Christmas Story Elements Tracker
- Activity: Dedicate a large piece of chart paper or a bulletin board to tracking characters and settings from your daily read-alouds. Divide the chart into 3 sections: one for titles, one for characters and one for settings. Each day after your read-aloud, take a few minutes as a class to list the key characters and describe the setting from the story on your new free story elements chart.
- Extension: This free activity also sparks great discussions as students compare and contrast different stories.
Want more Christmas blog posts?
- Christmas Bulletin Board Ideas for Your Classroom in December
- Favorite Christmas Read Alouds
- 6 Fun Reindeer Activities Classroom Reading & Writing Crafts
Thanks for reading this Christmas Story Elements blog!
The holiday season is a busy yet exciting time in the classroom. Teaching Christmas story elements is a wonderful way to teaching while including festive fun in your classroom. These activities offer students a chance to explore characters, settings, and plots in creative and engaging ways while building literacy skills. Whether you’re crafting interactive anchor charts, designing directed drawings, or tracking story elements throughout the month, these ideas are sure to bring the magic of storytelling to life.
