8 Spanish Christmas Crafts and Activities For Your Classroom!
This time of the year, a series of Spanish Christmas activities comes in handy to enrich your students’ learning process. As a Spanish educator, there are tons of fun ways to use Christmas-related Spanish content.
Start with Spanish Christmas vocabulary and then get into cultural knowledge about this important holiday in Spanish-speaking countries.
Keep reading to learn all the details about the best 8 Spanish Christmas crafts and activities for your classroom.
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Spanish Students Love Christmas
This holiday is an excellent opportunity to engage with your students in Spanish Christmas activities and crafts. They’ll be grateful that you get away from the regular Spanish program and organize fun activities for la Navidad (Christmas).
At this time of the school year, students tend to be distracted because of the Christmas play, the approaching vacations, and everything else going on in December. Channel their energy into creativity and artistic skills—and learning Spanish!
8 Spanish Christmas Crafts and Activities for Your Classroom
When it comes to Christmas, endless possibilities for classroom crafts exist, but how do you make the most of them to teach Spanish at the same time?
I’ve put together this list of 8 Spanish Christmas activities that balance crafts, expressive arts activities, games, and cultural content.
1. Christmas Ornaments – Esferas de Navidad
I covered my classroom door with esferas de Navidad (Christmas ornaments) last year, and my students loved the activity. You can make esferas in many ways. Give your students the task to create their own esfera in any way they can think of. You’ll be surprised by their creativity.
In our classroom, my students asked me for bright colored cardboard which they then cut out in circles of different sizes. They even decided to personalize their esferas, so each one would have their own on the door with their name.
Finally, make sure to add a colorful string from the top of the door to each ball. At the end, you’ll have a door of colorful esferas de Navidad giving the impression of a cool Christmas tree.
2. Árbol de Navidad de Papel
If you’re looking for a Spanish Christmas craft class, this árbol de Navidad (Christmas tree) made out of a paper plate is perfect to develop your students’ creativity and teach Spanish Christmas vocabulary.
Either bring enough paper plates for your students or ask them to bring their own paper plates. I recommend doing the former to control the size and quality of the plates. Use each step of the process to practice the names of the colors in Spanish.
Ask your students to color the plates verde (green). Use crayons, paints, or markers (kids love working with paint). Once the paint dries, cut the plates into 4 quarters and glue one part on top of the other as shown in the image. Add pompons of every color including
- blue – azul
- orange – anaranjado
- purple – violeta
Glue an estrella amarilla (yellow star) on top. Don’t forget to cut out a rectángulo marrón or (brown rectangle) for the trunk.
3. Christmas Fortune Teller
Kids love to play with fortune tellers known in Spanish as comecocos. Use their interest in the game to introduce some Spanish Christmas vocabulary. First, cut out the printable comecocos and then fold the comecocos as explained in this video:
I usually play the video in the classroom and stop it every time students ask for it. That way we do it together and can make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Once you have your comecocos folded, you can fill its faces with Christmas drawings such as a Christmas tree, a reindeer, and an ornament, to name just a few. Ask your students to say the corresponding words in Spanish:
- Christmas tree – el árbol de Navidad
- reindeer – el reno
- Christmas ornament – la esfera de Navidad
4. Pide Posadas
This is one of my favorite Spanish Christmas activities as you learn new words, practice pronunciation, and learn about a traditional cultural expression. Pedir posadas is a tradition that celebrates the religious origins of Christmas in a joyful way.
Divide your classroom into two groups. One should go outside of the classroom and the other stays inside. Each group gets a copy of the posadas song.
The group waiting outside starts singing, and the group inside listens. When they finish, the group inside answers, and the dynamic goes like this for a few stanzas.
If you want to get the tone and rhythm, check out this video:
5. Make a Christmas Star
This one is one of my favorite preschool Spanish Christmas activities. Young kids love this kind of craft!
You need 3 toilet rolls per kid. Ask the kids to paint the rolls with silver or gold paint. If you’re feeling bold, use white paint and sprinkle glitter while the paint is still wet. Let the paint dry. Cut each roll into 4 equal sections and arrange them into a star shape as shown in the picture below.
Your kids will love the result of this easy Spanish Christmas craft.
6. Spanish Christmas Bingo
If you’re looking for Spanish Christmas activities for high school students, playing Bingo is a handy solution. The thing with Bingo is that you can make it about anything you want.
In this case you’re making your Bingo game about Christmas in Spanish, but you can play Bingo to learn parts of the body, colors, adjectives, or any other important piece of vocabulary.
With this Bingo Card Generator, all you have to do is to enter the Spanish Christmas terms you want your students to learn and play the game!
7. Write a Letter to los Reyes Magos
Latin American children get presents from Santa Claus or el Niño Jesús (Baby Jesus) on Christmas Eve, and they also get presents on January 6th from los Reyes Magos (the Three Wise Men).
This printable Spanish Christmas activity will catch your students’ imagination. Can your students already write in Spanish? This is a prime opportunity to try the sentence structures you’ve been teaching them.
Print this letter template for los Reyes Magos, tell your students about the story of these legendary kings and ask them to write a letter for them just like the ones they’ve written to Santa before.
8. Make a Christmas Piñata
This is the ultimate Spanish Christmas craft. I’ve done this activity once and it was an unforgettable experience.
The thing is that making a piñata isn’t easy, and it can get super messy. When you look at the video below explaining the piñata-making process, it all seems so straightforward and neat. But believe me, fellow Spanish educator, it’s nothing like that.
However, you should have seen the smiles on my students’ faces when they went home with their piñatas in their hands. The activity offers plenty of opportunities to learn Spanish.
Lesson ideas:
- explain why Mexican people break piñatas during Christmas
- learn the piñata song
- introduce vocabulary about the materials and parts of the piñata.
Follow the process explained in the video below and make a Christmas piñata with your students!
Take Your Spanish Classroom to the Next Level!
Christmas is a special time of the year, and as a Spanish teacher, you can use it to your advantage. Try some or all of the Spanish Christmas activities described above and help your students to improve their Spanish while using their creativity and having fun.
By learning about other cultures with activities such as piñata making or the letter for los Reyes Magos, your students’ global awareness and understanding of diversity grows. Learning Spanish isn’t only about grammar rules and pronunciation, but also about opening your students’ eyes to a world beyond their front door.
Do you need support in your classroom? Homeschool Spanish Academy provides 1-on-1 or 2-on-1 online Spanish classes for K-12 students. We help alleviate the difficulty of having many students of varying levels of performance. Sign up for a free trial class to give us a try today!
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