Download our placemats for FREE! These five different holiday-themed placemats are great for in-person and virtual classrooms!
We know they will keep your students engaged while they learn more about the very specific times of year we revere so much in the US. Holidays are so much more than days off and discounts. They are deeply rooted in cultural beliefs and traditions from across the globe.
Holiday Placemat Features
Our FREE placemats feature challenges and games that can be played alone or with a partner:
Mazes
Mazes are loads of fun, come in all shapes and sizes, and challenge on a variety of skill levels. They are appropriate for all ages and grade levels and can help boost your child's confidence!
Mazes help with learning, writing, and drawing. Staying between the lines while coloring can make a beautiful picture, but the ability to do so makes a huge impact while learning to write too.
Mazes can also help students improve their scanning ability. Scanning is a powerful skill used by readers of all ages, and is a practice in speed and efficiency when reading or writing.
Try this: Tape a maze to your wall and improve your child's ability to write vertically. This mimics writing on a chalkboard or giving a presentation. Completing mazes exercises and improves problem-solving ability. Mazes also improve fine motor control. Fine motor skills are skills like reaching, grasping, and carrying, which are important to child development.
Tic-Tac-Toe
Tic-tac-toe is another super fun pastime included in our FREE kids holiday placemat set that you can download [right here].
Each themed sheet features enough tic-tac-toe hashes for a best-of-three with a classmate or maybe grandma! More hashes can be drawn on the back of your printable placemat for extended gameplay.
Here are six important child development lessons that tic-tac-toe reinforces:
- Problem solving
- Critical thinking
- Sportsmanship
- Social interaction
- Hand-eye coordination
- Predictability and strategy
Children as young as 3 can benefit developmentally from playing this game anybody can play anywhere!
Counting Challenges
Counting helps children with learning to visualize numerical values. The ability to clearly see what a number represents is key to the mastery of skills like time identification and time prediction.
For example, a strong grasp of “1 minute” versus “3 minutes”, or "not enough" versus "too much" can be useful when teaching patience or wastefulness.
Giving your child a fun way to practice counting over and over again reinforces the skill, and it may even help make learning math easier.
Coloring
The detailed graphics promote curiosity, and they challenge your child to consider the importance of details while coloring.
Below are 6 ways kids benefit from coloring regularly:
- Prepares first-time students for school by improving motor skills
- Helps students learn color theory, color awareness and recognition, and color discernment
- Improves focus and hand to eye coordination
- Reinforces the concepts of boundaries and spatial awareness
- Stimulates creativity and improves self-esteem and confidence
- It's therapeutic and promotes fearless self-expression
And believe it or not, a regular coloring habit is great for adults too!
Try this: Because they are digital, they can be colored on the computer with free software like Paint.Net or Adobe Photoshop! These options are useful if children are learning how to color images on a computer and could use some engaging practice.
Have Fun Learning About Holidays!
Kids will be excited to celebrate holidays at home or in the classroom year-round! These holiday placemats are printable and can be used season after season.
Choose from the 5 unique designs, print, laminate, and stick your new placemats onto your tables or other surfaces at Halloween, Thanksgiving, or any holiday you choose!
Want ideas for more activities for the holidays? Check out these: