Christmas is the most wonderful time of year and it should be for middle schoolers as well. Middle school students will love these Christmas-themed collections of activities. Many of the lessons below include vocabulary practice, reading skills, listening skills, and writing practice. There are several literacy skills that will help students with reading and writing comprehension as well as oral communication skills. From Christmas traditions in the United States to Christmas around the world, students will love these holiday-themed cloze activities. Here are 21 Christmas Cloze Activities For Middle School.
1. Christmas in Australia Cloze Notes
Middle schoolers are naturally curious about the world. This printable worksheet examines how Australians celebrate Christmas. Use this worksheet as an individual assignment or as part of a larger Christmas Around the World unit.
Learn More: Lesson Planet
2. The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree
This activity combines a podcast with a cloze vocabulary activity. Practice comprehension skills and listening skills using the podcast, then assess students' knowledge with the vocabulary worksheet. Listening activities paired with vocabulary and writing are the best way to encourage literacy skill development.
Learn More: Lesson Planet
3. Frosty the Snowman Activity
All students love a good, classic Christmas movie. This activity analyzes the 1969 version of Frosty the Snowman. This activity provides 8 sections to complete with the movie, including vocabulary and comprehension questions. Students will enjoy the classic Christmas cartoon while developing their listening and decoding skills.
Learn More: Busy Teacher
4. "Twas the Night Before Christmas" Cloze Comprehension
"Twas the Night Before Christmas" is a classic Christmas poem. Use the poem to assess students' comprehension. This set of activities also includes a rhyming activity and a cloze notes assessment. These activities are perfect class opening activities or exit slips.
Learn More: Student Handouts
5. The Big Bang Theory Christmas Video Cloze Notes
This fun activity uses the popular TV show The Big Bang Theory to teach new vocabulary and assess students' comprehension. Students will love the high-interest and engaging video clip as they work on important reading skills.
Learn More: Busy Teacher
6. The History of Christmas Decorations
This is another video-based assignment that engages learners while also assessing vocabulary and comprehension. This is also a great activity to pair with making a Christmas decoration as a holiday-themed craft. There are tons of Christmas-themed crafts that teachers can pair with this cloze notes lesson.
Learn More: Busy Teacher
7. Twelve Days of Christmas
This Christmas-themed listening activity encourages students to listen closely to the sentences and then fill in the missing words. Students will listen to the "Twelve Days of Christmas" and complete the carol cloze worksheet. Teachers can also help students learn more about the history of Christmas carols as well as new, lesser-known vocabulary.
Learn More: Busy Teacher
8. "White Christmas" Activity
This listening activity takes a look at the classic holiday song, "White Christmas". Kids will listen to the broadcasted holiday program then fill in cloze notes and answer critical thinking questions. Teachers can pair this lesson with other Christmas carol activities for a fun mini-unit on holiday music.
Learn More: ESL Printables
9. Cloze Song Lyrics
This website is a great cloze resource to use all year long, but there are also Christmas, winter, and holiday-themed songs included. Each link includes a song to listen to as students fill in the missing words.
Learn More: Eamus
10. Christmas Poetry Magnets
This interactive resource encourages kids to use their literacy and artistic skills in tandem to write Christmas-y poetry. Kids will use "magnetic" poetry on a platform like Google slides to write fun holiday poems.
Learn More: Edutech 4 Teachers
11. Christmas Similes
Use "The Night Before Christmas" poem to teach kids about similes. Have students identify similes in the poem, as well as analyze their meaning and purpose in the poem. The website also includes a handy answer sheet.
Learn More: Education
12. Christmas Vocabulary Cloze Activity
This vocabulary activity includes fill-in-the-blank sentences with a word bank. This resource encourages kids to learn new holiday-themed vocabulary. This is a perfect resource to begin a holiday unit or review a holiday unit.
Learn More: TES
13. Christmas in Great Britain
This activity uses a Youtube video clip to teach students about Christmas in Great Britain. After watching the video, they will fill in the elaborate sentence blanks, as well as the picture labels. Teachers can pair this activity with other Christmas around the world lessons to create a mini-unit.
Learn More: Pinterest
14. Christmas Picture Words
Visual learners will appreciate this holiday season activity. Students will use the pictures to identify the Christmas item. This cloze activity is especially beneficial for EL students learning new vocabulary terms. Use the pictures as flashcards for students to practice throughout the unit.
Learn More: Enchanted Learning
15. Christmas Paragraph Game
This is a fun, interactive multimedia activity. Students will listen to a paragraph and then complete a cloze notes game. There are five different cloze procedure activities related to holidays and Christmas that students will enjoy.
Learn More: Quia
16. Christmas in Poland
This is a great activity on its own, or you can add it to a Christmas Around the World unit. Students will read the passage about Christmas in Poland and fill in the blanks from the word bank. Kids will enjoy this comprehension activity while learning about world cultures.
Learn More: My Teaching Library
17. Christmas Island Text Structure
This cloze procedure activity encourages students to engage with texts and identify text structure. Students will read several passages about Christmas Island and then determine if the passage is compared/contrasted, problem/solution, sequential, or cause/effect.
Learn More: Mr. Nuss Baum
18. A Christmas Carol Cloze Activity Packet
A Christmas Carol is a classic Christmas short story that is already in many middle school curricula. Students will read A Christmas Carol filling in blank words. A unique part of this activity is that students will guess what word is missing and then check their answers.
Learn More: IPA Productions
19. Christmas in Hawaii
Students will read several interesting passages in this cloze procedure activity. They will learn about the history of Christmas in Hawaii as well as several Hawaiian vocabulary words. Then they will fill out several cloze worksheet reviews.
Learn More: Super Teacher Worksheets
20. "The Gift of the Magi" Vocabulary Activity
"The Gift of the Magi" is another Christmas classic short story that teaches students about love and sacrifice. In this vocabulary activity, students will complete several cloze procedure activities to learn and use new vocabulary words.
Learn More: Book Units Teacher
21. "Last Christmas" Cloze Activity
This activity uses "Last Christmas" to encourage students to use inferencing to fill in the song's blanks. This Christmas activity is a great way to start or end a holiday unit, and the kids will enjoy trying to guess the song's lyrics.
Learn More: ISL Collective
32 Christmas STEM Activities for High School