This Christmas we are giving you a present of an advent calendar packed FULL of links for you to explore – some for the classroom and school, and some for home at the weekends or over the holidays to use with friends and family. We hope you enjoy them all!

Day 1: Check out these educational and fun Christmas-themed games from Top Marks – perfect to put onto your interactive white board whenever you have 5-10 minutes to fill!

Day 2: Get some festive maths lesson inspiration from this Third Space Learning blog.

Day 3: Not decorated your classroom yet and not sure what to do? Lots of ideas here on Pinterest.

Day 4: Take your pick of planning inspiration from the Christmas Shed – courtesy of Literacy Shed

Day 5: Choose from some great resources for teaching about winter and Christmas (Primary and Secondary) from the BBC.

Day 6: Learn about Christmas across Europe, and pick up some new vocabulary from different languages on the way, through this website page from SCILT. 

Day 7: If you are already fed up with Christmas music and planning and end of term data drops…here is a tranquil soundtrack on YouTube to put on before bed to ensure a restful night’s sleep!

Day 8: Print out this great Christmas chocolate quiz for your class – print the answers too but keep those hidden until later!

Day 9: Offer children the chance to bring in presents to wrap with your help – great for single parent families or young carers who may not have an adult around at home to help with such things. Have wrapping paper and tags ready! You could even ask families to donate unwanted gifts from last year and let children choose one to wrap and take for their parent/guardian/carer at home if they have no money to buy them anything. 

Day 10: Take this great Christmas quiz from Country Living – for school or home!

Day 11: Print off some Christmas-themed colouring sheets from Crayola’s website – to keep children busy in between nativity rehearsals and Christmas dinners!

Day 12: Pick a festive themed history lesson from Active History (Secondary schools only)

Day 13: Send this link out to your school families so they can find the best of Christmas activities to take their children to, in whichever area they are!

Day 14: Ask children to make some decorations and pictures for you to donate to a local retirement home or hospice – they will be very grateful!

Day 15: Learn some facts about Christmas from the National Geographic Kids website. Perhaps children could create their own booklet or poster about their favourite fact. 

Day 16: Send parents a link to these festive bedtime stories from CBeebies 

Day 17: Put a Christmas film on! (The links all go to YouTube so please check them through, including the comments section, if you want to play these in class!)

Day 18: Time to pick all your Christmas TV viewing courtesy of these recommendations from the Radio Times.

Day 19: Organise for a Christmas/winter-themed read-a-long between different classes so that children sit and read together with a younger/older child. Great for those children who do not have siblings so they can experience that shared activity.

Day 20: Still at school this week? Here are some great end of term activities to keep everyone busy!

Day 21: Tackle some new and exciting Christmas recipes from BBC Good Food

Day 22: Stop any children in the house from getting bored while they wait for Santa to bring new toys by looking through these activity ideas from Good Housekeeping.

Day 23: Make yourself, and family and friends, a quick chocolate cake in the microwave with this great recipe – you can even turn it into a little science experiment too. Or just sit and eat it all in your PJs near the Christmas tree with a festive film on!

Day 24: Get this Christmas playlist playing in the background while you peel veg and finish wrapping any last presents!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the whole team at Greenhouse School Website!