First Day Back from Winter Break Activities: After Winter Break SEL Activity

This editable, no prep, Google Slides activity is a perfect day before winter break activity to keep students engaged before Christmas break OR for the first day back from winter break to reconnect and share about winter holiday activities. Use this winter holiday one pager activity to help your middle school or high school students celebrate the winter break, the Christmas Holiday, and any other winter holiday your students celebrate! This fun, creative, and engaging one pager activity encourages students to reflect on the people, experiences, and traditions they have to be look forward to.

While this winter holiday activity is great for Christmas time, it focuses on winter traditions rather than specifying any specific holiday (ie Christmas) in order to create a more inclusive classroom culture.

Includes two versions: one with prompts leading up to the winter break and one with prompts for sharing about breaks on the first day after winter break.

The activity is formatted to be printable as well as digital.

What is included in this resource?

Teacher Guide: Directions for teachers facilitating this activity. Includes discussion prompts and step-by-step directions.

Student-Friendly Directions: Clear directions to guide students through the activity. The directions include 6 open-ended prompts to help guide student reflections on family traditions, winter holidays, goals for the break, and more.

One-Pager Template: A blank template for creating the one pager and reflecting on traditions and winter break experiences they're looking forward to.

Scaffolded One-Pager Template: The blank template above with short directions in each space telling students where to put each requirement for the project. This is especially helpful for students with learning disabilities or students who are English Learners - simply print it on the back of the blank template.

One Pager Reflection: Students finish the project with a paragraph explaining the choices they made in creating their one pager and reflecting on the meaning and importance of holiday traditions, winter as a season, and the rest & renewal the winter break can bring!

Rubric: A rubric to help students create quality one pagers that meet the assignment goals.

Designed for Digital / Distance Learning AND Print: A link to a separate file with JUST the slides your digital students need for the activity.

Activity Duration:

This activity will take about 1 hour.

Sample pacing from my own class:

- 15 minutes: Introduce the project and brainstorm

- 30-45 minutes: Complete the one pager

- (optional) 15-30 minutes: Share one pagers with the class.

Final Notes and Details:

Please note, this activity is created in GOOGLE SLIDES and is EDITABLE so you can meet the unique needs of your students.

**This resource is a PDF with links to Google Slides documents. However, the documents can also be downloaded from Google Slides as POWERPOINT files or PDF files if you prefer (file, download as, choose your format)

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Terms of Use:

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Cover Credit: Thank you to Aneta Designs for the watercolor strokes in the product cover!