Holiday Project Based Learning Bundle

What better way to celebrate the holidays than with project-based learning? PBL uses real-world-based math problems to engage kids in learning. This project-based learning bundle gives students extra practice and review of essential math skills with fun holiday themes. Your students will love getting into the holiday spirit with this bundle of 6 differentiated project-based learning activities. In fact, students might be having so much fun celebrating, they won’t even realize they are learning.

But Wait! You Might Already Own This!

These Project Based Learning activities are all available separately. If you own any of our holiday PBLs, you already own part of this bundle.

This Holiday Project-Based Learning Bundle is intended to be used over the course of the school year. It includes activities for the following holidays:

• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• Valentine’s Day
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Easter

These project-based learning activities are a great way to celebrate the holidays but keep the focus on learning. They also make great test prep or review activities and offer a fun alternative to boring practice sheets. They provide rigorous practice of standards-based skills.

Each Holiday Project Based Learning activity is based around a unique theme that students love. Kids get to plan the perfect Halloween night, organize a family feast for Thanksgiving, run a Christmas tree farm, bake up sweet treats for Valentine’s Day, help a leprechaun launch a shoe store, and plan and organize a community Easter Egg Hunt.

These no-prep activities are easy to plan and use in the classroom. There are no complicated instructions, no long lists of supplies, and no messy projects. Simply print and teach.

What’s Included: Each PBL includes:

• Multiple (4 or more) skills-based math activities
• Easy options for differentiation
• Color and black and white versions
• An answer key
• Detailed teacher directions
• Thanksgiving Dinner and Valentine's Cupcakes include printable and digital versions

Skills covered include:

Each holiday PBL includes a variety of essential math skills:

Halloween: It’s Halloween night and students jump right into the fun making treats for their neighbors, planning the perfect trick-or-treating route, carving jack-o-lanterns, and diving into their candy stash. Two different versions for lower and upper elementary make differentiation easy.

Lower Version (2 & 3 grades):

• Addition & Subtraction
• Money
• Time
• Place Value
• Interpreting data
• Geometry
• Graphing
• Word problems

Upper Version (4th & 5th grades):

• Addition
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Money
• Time
• Place Value
• Interpreting data
• Decimals
• Geometry
• Graphing
• Fractions
• Word problems

Thanksgiving: Students plan a custom Thanksgiving dinner for each member of the Mayflower family accommodating likes and dislikes while sticking to a budget. Multiple options of Google Slides make it easy to differentiate and pick the perfect activities for your class.

• Addition
• Subtraction
• Money (decimals in more complex options)
• Problem-solving
• An editable version for both the digital and printable options makes this activity completely customizable.

Christmas Activities for Math, Reading, Writing & STEM: This resource includes a full week of reading, writing, math, and STEM activities. Students get to help run a Christmas Tree Farm. From growing trees and planning fun activities to marketing the farm and running daily operations, students are engaged in every aspect of this fun, seasonal business. Easier and more complex versions of many activities make differentiation easy.

What’s Included:

• More than 75 pages of Christmas Tree-Farm-themed activities
• 40 different activities (some with two versions for lower and upper elementary)
• Math, reading, writing, science, communication, critical thinking, creativity
• Complete STEM project
• Detailed teacher directions
• Answer key and lots of detailed examples, when appropriate
• Parent letter requesting donations for STEM project (with simple supplies you probably already have in your classroom)

Day 1: Growing Christmas Tree

• Christmas Tree Life Cycle (2 versions) - reading comprehension
• Christmas Tree Life Cycle (2 versions) - informational writing
• Types of Christmas Trees - reading comprehension
• Choosing the Perfect Tree - opinion writing
• Comparing Christmas Trees - compare and contrast
• Mapping the Tree Farm (2 versions) - map making, area (more difficult version only)
• Pricing the Christmas Trees - problem-solving, addition, and subtraction
• Last Year’s Tree Sales (2 versions) - addition, subtraction, problem-solving, fractions (difficult version only)

Day 2: Christmas Tree Farm Attractions

• Ice Skating Rink Rules - informational writing
• Ugly Christmas Tree Sweater - creative design
• Wreath decorating - geometry
• Photo Booth Backdrop - creativity
• Snack Stand Orders (2 versions) - addition and subtraction, problem-solving
• Making Hot Cocoa (2 versions) - writing (procedural, sequencing),
• Frost Farm Tree (2 versions) - math (procedural, sequencing)
• Meet the Reindeer - reading comprehension
• Build a Reindeer Barn: STEM Project

Day 3: Advertising and Farm Operations

• The Tree Farm Hours - clocks, elapsed time
• Farm Logo and Slogan - creativity and writing
• Tree Farm Jobs - reading (use with job application)
• Job Application - informational/persuasive writing
• Tree Farm Brochure (2 versions) - persuasive and informational writing, creative design
• Social Media Post - creativity and informational/persuasive writing
• Filming a Commercial - persuasive writing, public speaking, creativity, editing
• Advertising Budget (2 versions) - reading comprehension and math skills addition and subtraction in theeasy version and multiplication in thedifficult)

Day 4: Opening Day at the Tree Farm

• Tree Farm Ticket Prices (2 versions) - addition and subtraction
• Tree Farm Schedule - elapsed time, clocks, problem-solving
• Holiday Music Playlist - creativity, opinion writing, making a list
• Selling a Christmas Tree - persuasive writing
• Tree Delivery Route and map (2 versions) - critical thinking, math skills
• Snack Stand Brownie Recipe (2 versions) - reading a recipe, following directions, adding (easy), multiplying & fractions (difficult only)
• Photo Booth Picture - creativity and writing
• Reindeer Treats (2 versions) - repeated addition, decimals & multiplication in difficult only

Day 5: Opening Day Profits and Reflections

• Thank You Letter - writing a letter, creativity
• Thank You Postcard - writing a letter, creativity
• Read the Reviews - reading comprehension
• Reflection on Reviews - text-dependent analysis
• Tree Sales Graph - interpreting data, addition, subtraction
• Gift Shop Graph (2 versions) - graphing
• Revenue & Expenses (2 versions) - vocabulary, addition, subtraction
• Employee Celebration Party - brainstorming and creativity
• Project Reflection - self-reflection, drawing conclusions

Valentine’s Day: Students volunteer to bake Valentine's cupcake treats for the class Valentine’s party. This activity includes multiple activity options for differentiated learning.

• Graphing (pictographs and bar graphs)
• Adding
• Multiplying
• Reading recipes
• Money (with decimals in advanced versions)
• Time and elapsed time
• Fractions

St. Patrick’s Day: Students help leprechaun Lucky McKibben’s open and run a new shoe store. (According to Irish legend leprechauns are shoemakers). They’ll be laying out the store, purchasing supplies, helping customers, and calculating profits. Differentiation is easy with two separate versions for upper and lower elementary.

Lower Version (Grades 2 & 3):

• Time & Elapsed time
• Money
• Adding & Subtracting
• Graphing
• Interpreting data
• Problem Solving

Upper Version (Grades 4 & 5):

• Time & Elapsed time
• Area
• Money
• Decimals
• Adding & Subtracting
• Fractions
• Multiplication
• Graphing
• Interpreting data
• Problem Solving

Easter: Students help plan and organize the community Easter Egg Hunt Extravaganza. They will map out the event, stuff Easter eggs, hide Easter eggs and purchase tickets. Includes 2 separate versions for upper and lower grades.

Lower Version (Grades 2 & 3): Time & Elapsed time

• Geometry
• Money
• Adding & Subtracting
• Graphing
• Interpreting data
• Problem Solving

Upper Version Grades (4 & 5):

• Time & Elapsed time
• Geometry
• Area
• Fractions
• Money
• Decimals
• Adding & Subtracting
• Graphing
• Interpreting data
• Problem Solving

These PBLs can be used in a variety of ways to use this resource in the classroom:

• Use as a whole group activity. They are perfect for a Friday afternoon when you are in between units, or as a fun diversion from your regular material.
• Use during your holiday celebration in the classroom to keep the focus on learning.
• Use one or two activities per day during a holiday week.
• Place activities in student math centers.
• Assign to students to complete individually.
• Allow students to work together or in a small group.
• When using the colored version, print just a few copies and laminate or slide into page protectors. Students can use an Expo marker to complete the activities and you’ll have the activity for years.
• Use during guided-math groups to provide extra support to students.
• Include it in your sub plans.
• Make test prep fun with a holiday activity.

The Christmas Tree Farm resource includes 5 days of activities.

• This is a week-long activity designed to be used over 5 days. The activities are divided into five different themes, one for each day of the week. The daily activities have a variety of reading, writing, math, and even a STEM activity.
• This activity can take anywhere from a few hours to a whole school day, depending on how many of the activities you choose to do as well as your students’ abilities. Of course, feel free to modify to meet your scheduling needs.
• Complete all the activities for a given day if time permits, or pick and choose your favorites or those you feel are most appropriate for your students. Many activities have been differentiated for different grade levels.
• You can select just the math activities and use them as described above.
• If time is an issue, let your students choose activities.
• Allow students to work with a partner or in small groups
• Use writing activities or creative activities (like designing the sweater or photo booth) as morning work
• Create centers for different activities
• Film the commercials and play on the whiteboard or share with another class Make time to share each day
• Refer to the answer key and examples for more ideas

Differentiation

• These activities are designed for grades 2-5 and we’ve made differentiation super simple.
• The Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter PBL activities contain two complete versions, one designed for lower grades and one designed for upper grades.
• The Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day PBLs come with multiple options to choose easier or more complex numbers and skills. You can also customize the math problems to meet your students’ needs.
• The Christmas Tree Farm activity includes easier and more complex versions of many activities. There are over 40 activities in the resources, so you can choose the ones that are best for your students.
• Select one version for your entire class or assign different activities to different students based on their individual needs.
• Use activities in small groups to provide additional support.

❤️❤️ Why You’ll Love It: ❤️❤️

• Super easy to prep.
• Celebrate the holidays but keep the focus on learning.
• Rigorous practice of standard-based math skills in a fun format that kids love
• Makes a great alternative test prep and review activity

Time to Complete:

Each of the PBL activities except Christmas Tree Farm should take between 45-60 minutes, depending on the skill level of your students and whether or not they are working in groups. Christmas Tree Farm is a full week of activities that can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a full day depending on which activities you choose.

FAQs

Q: What is project-based learning?

A: Project-based learning or PBL is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

Q: Is there a lot of prep involved in this activity?

A: No. This activity is super low prep for teachers. All you have to do is print and teach.

Q: Do students complete these activities individually or in groups?

A: That’s up to you! PBL activities are great for collaboration, however, you can choose to allow students to work on this individually as well.

Q: How can I use the colored version in class without wasting ink?

A: The colored version is great if your students are working in pairs or small groups. Print and laminate the colored pages and have students use expo markers to record their answers. When they are done, they can erase their marks and you can reuse the pages over and over again.

Q: Should I use all of these PBLs at the same time?

A: There is one each for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter. Use them throughout the year to celebrate each of these holidays in your classroom