A Heart Growing Celebration

As the holiday season begins to fill the air, there’s no better way to embrace the magic of the season than with a little “Grinch Week.” Inspired by Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, this week-long adventure brings literacy skills and festive fun together in a way that even the Grinch himself would enjoy. Here’s a recap of how to pull off a Grinch-themed week that leaves everyone’s hearts a few sizes bigger!

Day 1-5: Bringing Literacy to Life

The most obvious way to kick off Grinch Week is of course to read the classic Dr. Seuss tale, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. It’s not just a delightful holiday story—it’s also packed with opportunities to engage young learners in literacy activities. We keep the Grinch filled excitement to mostly our Literacy block during days one through five.

DOWNLOAD FREE LITERACY PAGES HERE

All response pages and information for below is linked in the above link! This document has many different prompts and options for you to use with your learners.

Monday: Making Predictions
We read the story aloud, focusing on and responding to predictions that we make. We pause the reading to make a thoughtful prediction before reading the remainder of the book.

Tuesday: Retelling the Story
The Grinch’s antics make for a perfect sequencing and retelling activity. One of the best ways to do it is to photocopy/scan some pages of the book to rearrange in the correct order while retelling the events of the Grinch’s journey from grumpiness to generosity. (I have included which pages would be best for this activity).

Wednesday: Making Connections
The Grinch can actually be rather relatable. We use this third day to make text to self connections.

Thursday: Inferring Emotions
We use this day to grab evidence from the text and illustrations to inferring emotions and feelings in key moments of the story.

Friday: Forming Opinions
Usually by the last day, students have a lot of thoughts about the Grinch. Some of them often have thoughts that have changed. On this day, students get a chance to write about their opinion and learning how to respect other people’s opinions.

Friday: Grinch Day Extravaganza!

With the story fresh in their minds, it is time for an all-out Grinch-themed celebration! The classroom doesn’t have to be transformed into Whoville but it’s all about the vibe that counts. There are some options below of what you can do on this special day (some which have free resources linked)

1. Dress Like the Grinch
Students (and teachers!) come decked out in their best Grinch or Whoville attire. Green face paint, Santa hats, and even Who-inspired hairstyles made for a festive atmosphere. Personally, I love dressing as Cindy Lou Who! Set the Scene: While students come in in the morning, have THIS playing on repeat on your SmartBoard. (I recommend popping the link into SafeShare.tv so that ads do not appear and you can utilize the repeat option)

2. Movie Time
Kick off the morning by watching the original 1966 animated special How The Grinch Stole Christmas. You’d be surprised how many students have not seen this version of the Grinch. It runs about 25 minutes long and you can find it on DVD or on Amazon Prime.

3. Grinchy Games & Craft – Requires some prep-work but packs lots of fun. I would often make groups of students and run these as centers for about 15 minutes per center.

• Pin the Heart on the Grinch: A holiday twist on the classic game, encouraging teamwork and laughter. (Tip: use your SmartBoard to display an image of the Grinch. Then, put your SmartBoard on “freeze” so that the image doesn’t move. Tape up a piece of green poster board and trace! Save this for Grinchy years to come!)
  
• Grinch Snowball Toss: Students aimed “snowballs” (You can get faux snowballs at the Dollarstore) at a target shaped like the Grinch’s face.
  
• Grinch Face Ornament: An ornament to hang on their tree at home is a nice way to remember the fun they had throughout your Grinch Week. The ornaments are simple to make thought you will need to prep THIS SVG FILE of the Grinch Face to place on the ornament if you or your school has a Cricut or other cutting machine.
  You will need:
  – Clear Plastic Ornaments
  – Pledge Floor Finish (make sure its FINISH, not cleaner)
  – Green Glitter
  – Black Vinyl cut out
  Directions:
  – Put floor finish into student ornament. Have them swirl it around, covering the entire inside.
  – use a funnel and pour in the glitter. Again, have student swirl the glitter around until it is fully covered.
  – Place the ornament cap back on.
  – Let student place the vinyl sticker of the Grinch face on!

5. Mystery Math Class
You simply cannot leave out Math when it comes to a Grinch Day! This activity can either be done individually (if students have access to their own devices) or whole group (by displaying on the SmartBoard). Students will have a hundreds chart while the slides will tell them which number to colour in. By the time all the slides are done, the hundreds chart will reveal a mystery picture.

6. Phys Ed Class
Play a game of Steal the Presents. Students are in partners. One partner is the Grinch who will steal the presents and one partners is a Who who will try to save the presents. For the pair, there will get one hula hoop and three pilons or bean bags AKA presents. The Who will stay inside the hula hoop to protect the presents while the Grinch will go to other groups and try to steal their presents and bring it back to their hula hoop. If the Grinch gets tagged by another Who protecting the presents, they must go to another hula hoop (cannot steal from the hula hoop they got tagged at). Set a timer for 2-3 minutes and see who can collect the most presents. Play a few rounds and swap roles between partners. Extra Fun: “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” is just shy of 3 minutes. You can play the song for the length of one round.

Grinch Week isn’t just about the fun (though there’s plenty of that!). It’s about fostering a love of reading, encouraging creativity, and building a sense of community. By the end of the week, students had not only strengthened their literacy skills but also learned important lessons about kindness, gratitude, and the power of a growing heart.