Twas the Night (Well, the Fortnight!) Before Christmas

This activity lets you share the magic of Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit From St. Nicholas”, the poem we all know as “Twas the Night Before Christmas…”, with the children in your setting.

The poem is available either as a downloadable and printable PDF, that can also be used on a digital whiteboard, or as a video that can be played to your group. Included at the end is a quiz so that you can engage the children’s listening, observation and memory skills.

What you will need

Either this downloadable PDF, or this video:

Preparing the activity

Either print out the PDF or get ready to display it on your digital whiteboard, or set up the video with the whiteboard, television, tablet or projector.

Doing the activity

Read the poem to the children, or in the case of the video, simply press play! Draw their attention to details, from the various appearances of the mouse, to other animals such as the fox and reindeer.

At the end is a quiz to help in that engagement, to help you explore their listening and comprehension skills.

Follow-up activity

But there’s more! As a follow-up we are also including this cut-out Santa figure. We would advise with younger children to do the cutting yourself as it is quite tricky. To make it simpler you could print the cut-out in it’s A3 format and attach it to a piece of card.

This simple game can be used as a “parts of the body” activity, such as “which one is Santa’s foot?”, “Where shall we place Santa’s nose?”

Santa’s Teaser:

That’s not all Santa has in his stocking this Christmas- check out TNL and our social pages tomorrow for the chance to win an amazing prize!

Tracking the activity:

30 - 50 months

Literacy, Reading; "Beginning to be aware of the way stories are structured"

Literacy, Reading; "Suggests how the story might end"

Literacy, Reading; "Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall"

Literacy, Reading; "Describes main story settings, events and principal characters"

Literacy, Reading; "Shows interest in illustrations in books"