Advent calendar for primary school
Advent calendars are popular with children. In elementary school, you can combine the fun of opening the calendar with assignments and counting games.
In December, children can celebrate a little piece of Christmas every day. Opening the doors of the advent calendar increases the anticipation of the festival.
Where the advent calendar comes from
Today in the family and in the primary school popular calendars go back to Martin Luther. Children used to get their presents on St. Nicholas Day. Because Luther refused to worship St. Nicholas, he changed the tradition. The gifts were then given on Christmas Eve.
In order to make the waiting time more comfortable for their children, the Protestants developed customs such as the advent calendar. They would make a chalk mark on the door or collect straws every day in December. In affluent families, the children received every day until the 24th December a sweet little thing.
The first real advent calendar appeared in 1902. If you like handicrafts, you can bring joy to children as teachers in elementary school with a self-made calendar.
Get to know Christmas customs in other countries
A nice way to design advent calendars yourself is to fill small boxes with content. Instead of the classic sweets, other things go into the boxes. In each of the boxes you can put a text that tells about Christmas customs in other countries. You read it yourself or a child reads it story according to.
Would you like to make your partner happy and present him with an advent calendar ...
An alternative to the stories about other countries are stickers that you use to mark the country on a world map. You stick the sticker on the country and let the children tell you what they already know about the country and its Christmas customs. The children feel involved and are proud to present their knowledge.
Experience a different regional tradition every day
You can promote knowledge of regional traditions during Advent by placing a little something associated with Christmas in a box. This can be a straw star, instructions for making a paper star, a candle or a Christmas picture to color in. Every day a different child receives the box and is allowed to take it home for a day.
The next day the child reports what happened to the object in the family. It is important that with this type of Advent calendar you let the parents of the children in the elementary school know about the project beforehand. So mother and father know when the child brings the box.
Fill the advent calendar with sweets
The classic filling for advent calendars - sweets - is not taboo in elementary school. Instead of using chocolate, you can bake cookies with the children. Fill each door of the calendar or box with a biscuit. Children love sweets and sweets. By baking together, they also acquire knowledge about baking ingredients and how the delicacies are made.
Design the advent calendar
A simple way to design the advent calendar is with little trees made of rolled up green cardboard. You can make these with the children in elementary school. You cut a square sheet of cardboard diagonally. Two emerge Triangles. Roll them up so that a cylindrical shape, a Christmas tree, is the result. You can store gifts for every day of Advent under the cardboard tree.
You can put texts and stories in text form in small cards. Fold red cardboard with the children by folding the cardboard in the middle. Put the texts in there, fix them with a clothes peg and hang the cards on a string.
A large picture frame resembles a real advent calendar, in the middle of which you can attach pendants with hooks. Stretch a cardboard box in the middle of the picture frame. Attach hooks to stick on the cardboard. They hang the presents on the hooks, such as pendants or small bags with the present.
In elementary school, you and the children can put colorful stickers on larger gifts or boxes or wrap them in wrapping paper. Place the boxes on a shelf that will serve as an advent calendar.
Who can open the door?
You use counting games to open the door. For example, arrange the children alphabetically based on their first names and assign a number to each child. This number is the date of the day of Advent on which it is allowed to open a door. This way the children know from the start what date it is their turn.
Let chance decide when the children roll the dice. If you roll a six, you go to the next round, in which the dice are rolled again until there is one child left. This child has rolled the six most often and is allowed to open the door.
You will develop the numeracy skills of the elementary school students by combining the opening of the little doors with math problems. Divide the children into the four corners of the room. Ask arithmetic problems. Whoever calls the solution first can go to the next corner. Whoever completes a complete lap first is allowed to open the door.
Alternatively, have the children count, starting at 1. For every number that contains a 4 or is divisible by 4, a different word (e.g. Christmas tree) must be said. The child who does not make mistakes is allowed to open the new door.
As a teacher, you associate the opening of the door with a task from the mathematics or the content of other subjects. This challenges the children, gives them a sense of achievement and is fun thanks to the playful aspect. Doing handicrafts together promotes fine motor skills in the little ones and baking cookies promotes knowledge of food. The advent calendar is valuable and instructive in terms of pedagogy.
As a teacher, be sure to keep an eye out for opening the doors fairly. Make a list of which child received a gift and when. Make sure that each child has a turn at least once.
