Barbara Robinson’s Activities for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a beloved holiday story that not only entertains but also offers rich opportunities for educational engagement. Its vivid characters, humorous plot, and heartfelt messages make it an ideal text for classroom exploration in December and beyond.
This article presents a variety of creative and meaningful classroom activities based on The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. These activities enhance comprehension, encourage creative expression, and integrate cross-curricular learning, making the holiday season educational and fun.
Why Use The Best Christmas Pageant Ever in the Classroom?
The story’s mix of humor, relatable mischief, and deeper lessons about kindness and acceptance captivates students from upper elementary through middle school. Using it in class can:
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Improve literacy skills (reading, writing, summarizing)
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Foster social-emotional learning (empathy, respect)
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Encourage teamwork and creativity
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Connect literature to real-world holidays and traditions
Top Classroom Activities Inspired by The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Character Holiday Cards
Students select a character from the book and create a personalized holiday greeting card reflecting that character’s traits and role in the story. For example, a card for Imogene Herdman might be bold and mischievous in design. This activity encourages students to analyze characters deeply and express their understanding artistically.
It’s particularly effective during the busy holiday season as a short, engaging task that blends art and literacy.
Comic Scene Summary
The Herdmans’ antics are full of comedic moments that lend themselves perfectly to comic strip creation. Students can choose a favorite scene and illustrate it as a comic, complete with dialogue bubbles. This exercise strengthens visualization, sequencing, and writing skills, while allowing students to have fun portraying the story’s humor.
Creating comics also appeals to visual learners and helps break up the routine of traditional reading assignments.
Collaborative Holiday Traditions Book
Beth, the narrator, describes the Christmas pageant as a cherished family tradition. Building on this, students research and write about their own holiday traditions, then collaborate to assemble a class book. This project celebrates cultural diversity and builds community within the classroom, broadening students’ awareness of different celebrations during the festive season.
The class can read the book aloud together, sharing stories that foster respect and inclusiveness.
STEM Challenges: Engineering the Nativity Stable & Candy Catapult
In a clever cross-curricular approach, students apply science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) principles to challenges inspired by the pageant.
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Nativity Stable Building: Students design and build stable models using materials like popsicle sticks or legos that can protect a small figure or cotton ball baby Jesus. The structures are then tested for stability.
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Candy Cane Catapult: Inspired by the Herdmans’ love of snacks, students engineer catapults to launch candy canes, exploring principles of force, trajectory, and engineering design.
These hands-on activities engage critical thinking and scientific methods while connecting playfulness with curricular goals.
Character Booklets
Students create booklets analyzing major and minor characters. Each page explores traits, quotes, actions, and changes. This deep dive into characterization develops analytical reading and writing skills.
The task can be independent or done in pairs, and completed booklets serve as valuable study aids.
Dramatic Play and Scriptwriting
Given the story’s theatrical roots, students can act out key scenes by writing scripts, designing sets, and performing mini-plays. This immersive experience promotes collaboration, oral communication, creativity, and empathy as students step into their characters’ shoes.
Teachers can assign scenes or let groups choose for a culminating holiday event.
Scrapbook Diary from Beth’s Perspective
Students create a diary or scrapbook that reflects Beth’s thoughts and feelings throughout the story. They include text entries, drawings, and symbolic artifacts. This activity nurtures inferencing, perspective-taking, and creative expression.
It’s also a great way to explore narrative voice and point of view.
Bonus: Integrating Art and Writing
Pair the novel study with art projects like chalk pastel drawings of scenes or characters from the pageant. Art enriches understanding and provides memorable holiday keepsakes.
Creative writing prompts related to the story might include:
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Writing a letter from a Herdman child to a friend about their pageant experience
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Persuasive paragraphs on why the pageant was the best or worst ever
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Descriptive essays imagining new holiday traditions inspired by the story
Resources for Teachers
Many educators have developed project-based learning units and lesson plans to assist with teaching The Best Christmas Pageant Ever effectively. These resources often include templates for holiday cards, comic strips, booklets, scripts, and STEM challenge guides.
One high-authority and comprehensive resource is the teacher-created literature unit found at Teacher Created Resources, which provides sample lesson plans and activities aligned to curriculum standards.
For more teaching ideas and materials to bring this story to life in the classroom, the American Library Association’s site offers valuable information about the book and educational uses:
American Library Association – Notable Children’s Books
Read More: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: A Complete Summary and Life Lessons
Conclusion
Activities for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is an exceptional book for classroom instruction during the holiday season because it combines humor, meaningful life lessons, and relatable characters. The suggested activities transform the reading experience into an interactive, multidisciplinary journey that engages students’ minds and hearts.
By incorporating character studies, creative projects, STEM challenges, and dramatic play, teachers can foster an inclusive and joyful learning environment that helps students explore literature in fun and impactful ways.
Using the Herdmans’ story as a foundation, students not only improve academic skills but also embrace values that resonate far beyond the classroom: kindness, acceptance, and community spirit.
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