Celebrating the season doesn’t mean just focusing on Christmas. You can create inclusive crafts that all of your students will love to make. Here are some suggestions for fun art projects that are open ended enough to relate to Christmas, Diwali, Kwanzaa, New Years or just the first snowfall!
Practice patterning and sequencing while creating beautiful star ornaments! Roylco’s R16024 Stringing stars are a perfect craft base for holiday ornaments that students can give as gifts, hang in their homes, or use to decorate their classrooms! Check out the video we made to start creating strung stars in your classroom:
Integrate history, math and art as you put a holiday spin on Roylco’s R15665 Quilt Blocks! Each student can design their own quilt block, and add an image of a symbol of their favorite holiday tradition cut out of construction paper! Put all the blocks together to create a classroom quit that celebrates everyone’s holiday traditions!
Decorate with color this season! Fold up beautiful ornaments with our special designs–use paint, crayons or markers to color in the shapes. Each of the R51081 3D Ornaments are die-cut into 3 folding designs. This means that when folded, the card ornament transforms into a beautiful arrangement that can be hung from the ceiling or as a part of a giant seasonal mobile. 
Integrate the science of weather while exploring the mathematical concept of symmetry. Start with Roylco’s R2437 Colour Diffusing Snowflake Kit. The kit comes with a beautifully illustrated poster of inspiring snowflakes along wtih a guide detailing the kinds of snowflakes that are formed at different temperatures. The guide provides easy-to-understand information about snowflake formation. Once your students know about snowflakes they can make their own! Start with a pre-cut sheet of colour diffusing paper. The clever design makes it easy to fold and cut wonderful snowflakes. Colour them in with watercolour paint or markers!
Study the design of snowflakes in more detail with Roylco’s R58622 Super Snowflake Stencils. The twelve beautiful designs are perfect for making wrapping paper, window art and splatter painting.
For an outstanding window decoration, use Roylco’s R52085 Snowflake Stained Glass Frames. The metallic silver snowflakes are cut from high quality foil card. Flip them over and glue on tissue paper or Roylco’s R15257 Stained Glass Paper. Light will shine through the snowflakes and cast off wonderful colours!
If stained glass art interests you and your students, explore the season with black construction paper. Children can start with a sheet and fold it in half and cut out shapes along the fold line. Alternatively, kids can poke their scissors into the paper and cut out shapes. For a Christmas theme, try creating a Little Town of Bethlehem townscape or make a beautiful star shining in the night sky! Flip the scene over and fill the gaps with coloured tissue paper or Roylco’s R15257 Stained Glass Paper.
Explore holiday traditions with dioramas! Children can create dioramas on any subject. If they are interested in Christmas, they can create traditional or contemporary scenes. They can explore Christmas traditions in other cultures. Alternatively, they can make a diorama focusing on their own holiday traditions whether that’s taking a ski holiday, celebrating Kwanzaa, Hanukah or Ramadan. The scene can be anything the child is interested in. Provide some direction by putting out a mix of decorative elements such as craft buttons, coloured noodles, pompoms, fabric scraps, craft paper and modelling clay. Don’t forget to include magazines and catalogues along with scissors and glue. Children can flip through the pages and cut out pictures and glue them into their scenes. To make it easier to create wonderful dioramas, start with Roylco’s inexpensive R52094 Set the Scene Diorama Boxes.
Incorporate literacy into your festive activities. Create family heirlooms by writing the story of Christmas or any religious holiday onto a sacred scroll. Alternatively, children can make up and write down their own creative stories. These stories can make marvellous gifts. The author of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Clement Clarke Moore, originally wrote his poem as a Christmas gift for his family. It’s become a tradition in many Christian families to reread the poem on Christmas Eve. Start with a sheet of Roylco’s R15406 Rolly Scrolly Paper and let children compose their own stories or practice their penmanship skills by rewriting a poem or the Biblical Story of Christmas. Roll up the scroll and send it home with the students.
Decorate your classroom with a friendship paper chain! Traditionally paper chains are used to decorate homes and Christmas trees. Use them to celebrate your students. 
Start with good quality craft paper. Roylco’s R15203 Decorative Hues Paper is perfect. The sheets come in a huge range of colours. Cut off strips along the bottom of the paper. The paper is the perfect width (14 cm). Cut off strips that are 2-3 cm wide. Each child writes in his or her name on the paper strip. One student starts by looping their paper link together and taping it closed. He or she then hands the link over to the next child who threads his or her strip through the loop and tapes it closed. Go all the way around the room once or twice to create wonderfully long chains. Use them to decorate your classroom.
End your seasonal celebrations with Thank You Notes! Integrate writing skills with etiquette and art. Start out with a #10 envelope and Roylco’s R52056 Puzzle Me puzzles. Children write messages on the body of the puzzles and adds decorative details. They then break up the pieces and put them in an envelope to send off to a special someone!
It’s important to acknowledge and celebrate the season in the classroom, however, your celebrations don’t need to be limited to Christmas. Ask your students how they celebrate the season and explore everyone’s uniqueness through pictures, art and stories.
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