Students certainly had fun playing holiday games. There's always a lot of joy in the gym as children participate in games like The Gingerbread Man, The Christmas Basketball Shootout, Build a Snowman, Run Run Reindeer, Grizzly Bear, Reindeer Relays, and The Christmas Paper Party Wrap. I sometimes read a short holiday book that corresponded with the game. Children enjoyed hearing the stories and looking at the fun pictures.
Reindeer Relays were such fun. The cone was the chimney and the reindeer
had to pull Santa on a scooter to the chimney so the present could be placed inside.
We read the book, "The Night Before Christmas."
The Christmas Paper Party Wrap was a song that had children using pieces
of paper for a dance. In the end, the paper was wadded up for a snowball fight.
Grizzly Bear was a tag game where students tiptoed up to sleeping bears who woke up to chase the children back to home base. We read the book "Bear Stays Up for Christmas."
Run, Run, Reindeer is a running game that children love. Mats are set up in a circle as rooftops and children (the reindeer) jog from mat to mat as music plays. When the music stops they must be on a mat. If caught off the rooftop three times, a child must go to the reindeer hospital to do an exercise to get healthy and return to the game. We read the book "The Reindeer Christmas."
Students used various pieces of PE equipment to Build a Snowman.
We read the book "Snowmen at Christmas."
The Christmas Basketball Shootout game had teams racing against each other to spell
holiday words or phrases. Each time a basket was made, a letter was added to the word.
The Gingerbread Man was a tag game and we read a book by the same name.
Students pretended to be gingerbread boys and girls and ran as fast
as they could to keep away from the tagger. It was fun to hear the children chant,
"Run, run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!
