December can often be a flurry of excitement. You’ll be busy planning holiday activities, but you’ll still need some fun learning activities to keep little learners engaged throughout the month. Here you’ll find a wide variety of playful December preschool activities to do with preschoolers throughout the month.
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The free printable December kids’ activity calendar includes a ton of fun activities to do with kids at home or in the classroom. Use it yourself, or send a copy to parents so they have a little inspiration for hands-on fun and learning.
Read over the brief descriptions of the December preschool activities below. Then grab your own free printable December activity calendar, and you’ll have a full month of activity ideas at your fingertips. The free printable includes links to each post so you can click through online for more information, and you can also print it out to use as a quick reference.
We’re also always creating new activity ideas! In addition to an introduction to the activities originally included in the free printable calendar, I also add new activities we create related to each theme so you’ll have more options to choose from. Those are listed below each week’s original activity suggestions but are not reflected in the free printable calendar.
For some themes we have full theme planning guides and printable lesson plans. If those are available for a particular theme, there are also links to those resources included with the related weekly theme.
December Preschool Activity Themes
For our December preschool activities we’re exploring the following topics:
Week 1: Animals
Week 2: Gingerbread
Week 3: Winter
Week 4: Christmas
Note: The free printable does not include dates. Simply pick and choose which theme you want to do for each week in December, and change the order as necessary.
Week 1: Animals
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- PLAY ANIMAL CHARADES: Pretend to be a certain animal and see if kids can guess which animal you are. Then let kids do the pretending and have others guess.
- DO SOME RESEARCH: Choose an animal your kids are interested in learning about. Then find some nonfiction books or videos to learn some facts about that animal. Record new information in a science journal.
- ANIMAL SORT: Gather animal toys from around the home or classroom. Discuss different characteristics of the animals they represent (where they live, how they move, body coverings, etc). Sort the set in different ways.
Animal Theme Activities from the Free Printable December Activity Calendar
Panda Small World Play: As we learned about animals from Asia the kids were particularly interested in learning more about pandas. We created this simple small world so they could engage in pretend play and act out some of the information they were learning.
Hungry Bear ABC Game: Upcycle an old tea box (or something similar) into a bear cave craft. Then have kids take turns being the bear with this fun alphabet game.
Handprint Hedgehog: As we learned about forest animals in winter we had some fun with the book One Snowy Night and made this cute hedgehog craft.
Edible Zoo Small World: If you have little ones who just can’t resist putting things in their mouths, this one is for you. It’s a child-led create your own edible zoo small world.
Lion Mask: Turn a paper plate into an adorable lion mask. Curling the “mane” is excellent fine motor practice, and kids love using their masks for pretend play!
Additional Resources
Animal Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of animal theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 2: Gingerbread
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- READ: There are so many fun versions of gingerbread stories. Head to the library, grab a few and snuggle up to read and compare the different versions together.
- BAKE & CREATE: It’s hard to do a gingerbread theme without doing a little baking (or at least some taste testing). If you have the time, bake a batch of gingerbread cookies. Or if you’d rather skip the baking and get straight to the tasting buy some gingerbread people or a house from the store and get to decorating.
- CREATE SOME MORE: Grab an old box (the bigger the better!). Give kids scrap paper, markers, scissors, glue, and any extra embellishments you have on hand. Let them decorate their own gingerbread house with the materials.
Gingerbread Theme Activities from the Free Printable December Activity Calendar
Gingerbread Play Dough: If you’re planning a gingerbread theme, then you absolutely must make a batch of gingerbread play dough. Aside from decorating gingerbread creations, playing with gingerbread play dough is our favorite gingerbread activity. It smells AMAZING, and there are so many ways to use it.
Gingerbread Felt Play: Make your own gingerbread felt set for kids to play with over and over again. It’s a fun–sugar free!–activity for a gingerbread theme or Christmas time.
Gingerbread Play Dough ABCs: You’ve already got play dough and loose parts from setting up the gingerbread invitation to play. Now add in some letter cutters and you’ve got a recipe for some hands-on playful literacy. Kids love serving up their pretend play ABC cookies.
Decorate Gingerbread Houses: This is one of the traditions my kids request each year, but there’s so much flexibility…make it your own and have some fun with it!
Gingerbread Counting Mats: Print out the free printable gingerbread math mats and grab some loose parts (use the ones from your original play dough invitation!). Then work on numbers 1-10 with preschoolers and kindergarteners for some. As they play kids will learn to recognize numbers to 10, count out sets, and identify different ways to represent the numbers!
Additional Resources
Gingerbread Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of gingerbread theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 3: Winter
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- COMPARE & CONTRAST: Pick two seasons, winter and one other favorite time of year. Discuss what is the same and different about the weather, foods you eat, the clothes you wear, and the things you do in each season. Record your answers in a writing journal or on a visual chart.
- JUST RIGHT CLOTHING: Gather some items of clothing to sort between winter clothing and non-winter clothing. Observe the clothing closely. Discuss the different fabrics and why some types of fabric are better for winter and others are not.
- SNOWBALL FIGHT: If you have snow, head outdoors for a snowball fight. If not, gather some socks or balled up paper and have your own indoor snowball fight.
Winter Theme Activities from the Free Printable December Activity Calendar
Arctic Small World Play: Create a simple arctic small world with pretend snow for sensory play.
Snowman Art: Winter always has my kids daydreaming of building snowmen…unfortunately, that’s not happening anytime soon here in Florida. Instead we find new ways to create them through art and other hands-on activities!
Snowy Owl Winter Craft: Use a fun process art technique to create snowy owl winter art.
Snowman Sensory Bag: This snowman sensory squish bag gives toddlers and preschoolers a lot of practice in identifying and naming colors and even shapes.
Snowman Shape Play Dough Mats: For this activity, we started with sparkly white play dough and loose parts from our snowman play dough invitation. Then we printed out our free printable snowman shape mats. There are two variations. One set includes one large shape for making a snowman face. The other set includes snowman bodies made out of different shapes. Use the set that best meets your needs!
Additional Resources
Winter Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of winter theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 4: Christmas
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- SING: Pick your favorite Christmas carols and sing together. My kids especially love turning on Christmas music and dancing along as if they are performing in one of the many Christmas shows we’ve seen over the year.
- MAKE CARDS: Making cards provides kids with an authentic writing experience. Set up a small card-making station with card stock, markers, stickers and such and let kids create cards for friends and family.
- PLAY: Grab some jingle bells (tie them to a string if you don’t have any that are already tied). Then use them to play Jingle and Seek…a fun twist on hide and seek. Everyone hides and then after a bit of searching shakes their bell to clue little ones in on where to find them….it’s a great activity for working on listening skills.
Christmas Activities from the Free Printable December Activity Calendar
Pom Pom Painted Christmas Tree: If you need a super easy Christmas craft that kids of all ages can make, this one is perfect! Toddlers can easily grasp the DIY pom pom paintbrushes, and big kids love stamping different patterns and designs.
Reindeer Play Dough: Gather some natural materials and combine them with chocolate scented play dough to create an irresistible reindeer play dough invitation.
Egg Carton Bell Craft: Turn old egg cartons into bells as a fun holiday craft. Then use them for playtime. We like to use ours to play Jingle and Seek, a fun twist on Hide and Seek. They’re also great to use as you sing Christmas Carols or to take along to a Christmas parade.
Roll and Color Christmas Tree Math: In this free printable Christmas tree number matching activity kids get the chance to practice number recognition as they color in their own Christmas trees. You can modify the activity in a variety of ways to meet your needs: Instead of coloring with crayons, try placing the page in a sheet protector and letting kids color with dry erase markers so they can play over and over again!
Peppermint Water Play: Water play isn’t just for summer! Kids love the scent of this fun peppermint sensory bin.
Additional Resources
Christmas Theme Planning Guide
Christmas Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of Christmas theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Bonus Section! New Year’s Fun and Learning
Get the Free Printable December Activity Calendar
Note: Updated version is slightly different from the one pictured here. It does not have dates listed so that it can be used again and again from year to year.
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