Christmas is a magical time for students as well as teachers. Classrooms are buzzing with the excitement of parties and joyful pageants. The Christmas holiday offers an abundance of learning opportunities through games, crafts and food-related activities. So bring the joy of Christmas into the classroom with a festive and stimulating lesson plan.

Make Christmas dough ornaments. Give each child a large plastic storage bag containing 1 cup of flour, ½ cup of salt, 3 cups of water and red or green food coloring. Have the students squeeze the bag to form a dough. Remove the dough from the plastic bag and place it on a piece of newspaper. Provide each child with holiday cookie cutters to cut the ornaments from the dough. Use a small plastic straw to make a hole in the top of the ornament. Allow the ornaments to dry for 24 to 48 hours and hang them with ribbons.

Play the "Christmas is for sharing" game during morning group time. Gather the children together in a circle on the carpet. Give one child with a candy-filled goody bag and turn on the Christmas music. Ask the child to begin passing the bag around the circle. When you stop the music, the child holding the bag gets to keep it. Continue playing the game until everyone has a goody bag to take home.

Create sweet marshmallow snowmen. Give each child a snowman pattern and a small bowl filled with miniature marshmallows. Ask the students to lick the marshmallows and stick them onto the snowman. Let the children color the marshmallows with washable markers to make the snowman’s eyes, mouth and nose.

Decorate "run run Rudolf" cupcakes. Provide each child with a store-bought cupcake with chocolate icing. Instruct the students to break pretzel twists in half and arrange them on the cupcake to make reindeer antlers. Add red cinnamon candies for Rudolf’s shiny nose and miniature chocolate kisses for the eyes. The class can eat the creations during snack time.

Craft a festive Christmas stocking for Santa to fill with toys and yummy treats. With a pencil draw a large stocking pattern on brown butcher paper. Cut out two pieces for child. Supply the students with glue and instruct them to attach the stockings together, being careful not to glue the top closed. Use a hole punch to make small openings around the edges of the stocking. Let the children lace red yarn through the holes and tie a knot at the end. Decorate the Christmas stockings with crayons, glitter and Christmas stickers.