4 Tips for Managing Classroom Disruption During the Holiday Season
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‘Tis the season for sparkles, snowflakes and...squirmy students? As the holiday countdown begins, classrooms can quickly turn into winter wonderlands of distractions. While many kids are anticipating downtime and holiday fun with friends and family, some may harbor hidden worries about complex family dynamics, stretched budgets and other adversities. They may also have underlying anxieties about the disrupted routines that accompany school vacations.
While educators are undoubtedly looking forward to decompression time of their own, they also have to consider the impact the upcoming break from classes will have on students’ hard-won learning progress. The great news is that there are some easy strategies you can implement today to help keep your students involved while arming them with critical skills to manage holiday stress. Since we know the kids likely have their minds on the holidays, giving these exercises some holiday dazzle is sure to get their attention and interest.
Here are four strengths you can focus on to maintain momentum in positive and engaging ways.
1. Self-Awareness
Cultivating self-awareness is crucial for students to recognize and manage their emotions, especially during the holiday season when feelings can run high. Three activities to try:
- Mindfulness exercises: Ask students to focus on their breathing or imagine snowflakes gently falling to calm their minds and bodies amid holiday excitement.
- Emotional check-ins: Talk to students about identifying their emotions, using prompts like “What are you looking forward to during the holidays?” or “What's causing you stress?”
- Journaling: Have students journal about holiday experiences, gratitudes and challenges. Remind them to work on it during the break for further writing practice that doesn’t feel like homework.
2. Self-Regulation
Self-regulation strategies empower students to manage their emotions, thoughts and behaviors, ensuring a smoother transition into the holiday season and beyond. Some holiday-related ways to discuss and practice self-regulation include:
- Breathing techniques: Introduce them to “calming candy cane breaths.” Have them inhale deeply (red stripe), hold (white stripe) and exhale slowly (red stripe) to promote relaxation with a holiday visual.
- Positive self-talk: Encourage New Year's affirmations by having students reflect on strengths and accomplishments to boost confidence during the holiday season and as they contemplate goals for the new year.
- Self-monitoring: Ask students to track and rate their emotions daily, using a weather icon (sun, clouds, snow, rain), so they recognize how emotions can shift and potentially begin to identify patterns and triggers leading to positive or negative feelings.
3. Social Awareness
Through improved social awareness, students are better able to understand and appreciate diverse perspectives, cultures and traditions that promote an inclusive classroom community. Some examples of social-awareness-building activities include:
- Holiday traditions sharing: Invite students to describe their family's unique holiday customs, with peers listening actively and asking questions. Suggest students choose something new to try with their own family and write about to share when you reconvene.
- Kindness discussions: Explore ways students can show kindness and gratitude, such as volunteering, donating or writing thank-you notes, to highlight the values of compassion and community.
- Holiday role playing: Use scenarios like gift-giving and family gatherings to provide practice in active listening and conflict resolution skills.
4. Responsible Decision-Making
Developing responsible decision-making skills empowers students to make informed choices, prioritize goals and reflect on their actions. Some activities that focus on building these skills during the holiday season are:
- Goal setting: Have students set achievable, measurable objectives (such as reading X number of pages or conducting a specific volunteer activity) to prompt responsible planning and time management.
- Decision-making exercises: Present scenarios like “Should I spend my holiday money or save it?” or “How can I balance family obligations with personal preferences?” to practice weighing options and making thoughtful decisions.
- Reflective thinking: Ask students to think ahead to a tricky situation — such as the ones above or others they might encounter — and ask them to consider how they’ve handled it in the past and ways they could improve on their reactions this year.
Wrapping up the Year on a High Note
Want to extend the benefits of these activities? Remind your students that these techniques are not limited to the classroom; they can draw upon them whenever feelings of overwhelm or stress arise during the holidays.
To extend the impact, consider sending students home with a “holiday toolkit,” a shareable sheet outlining these strategies, and encouraging caregivers to explore them together as a family.
Best of all, you’ll be ending the year on a positive note by channeling their holiday excitement (and restlessness and distraction) into productive and healthy activities. For more useful resources, visit Pearson’s Mental Health Resource Center or our Behavior Managment resources. We also offer SEL training workshops for schools looking to implement an SEL framework within their campus or district.