Common Core Activities for December

December is always so much fun at school, but unfortunately, also crazy busy! When I taught first grade, there were always SO many themes I wanted to integrate into the curriculum. There's gingerbread, Polar Express, reindeer, Christmas around the world... The list goes on. There are a lot of cute and fun things I wanted to do, but I also wanted to make them meaningful. This week on my blog, I shared some of my favorite activities from years past. These are all FREE activities that I posted years ago that have been updated. They all hit several Common Core Standards, too!


This fun writing activity is a follow-up to comparing gingerbread stories. All of that information and details for this activity can be found HERE.




This activity starts with a cute fiction story with it's own comprehension activities. It leads us to our big question: Are reindeer really the best animal to help Santa? This leads us into opinion writing, which can only be done after some research. Lots of standards hit with this one and the kids are really into it! There is also an option for shared writing, if your kiddos aren't ready to do it on their own. Perfect opportunity for modeling writing skills! Click HERE to get read all about it.



This activity can be found all over, but I blogged about how I turned it into a fun shared writing assignment. I also created a rubric for those of you who do want it to be an independent writing activity. Click HERE to read more.

Finally, a great addition to your Polar Express unit. Click HERE to read more.



I hope one of these activities fits into those lesson plans for the short, but busy, month of December.