Ideas for before and during Christmas Break

As Christmas break looms upon us I have a few suggestions for quick lessons to do with your students.

1. QR generators - I have found that the easiest way to ensure your students are going to the correct website is the create a QR code and have them scan it.  This works especially well with younger students or students who have difficulty typing.  I did a "webquest" using FactMonster.com recently.  These are easy to create.  My topic was Winter Holidays.  First I went to Fact Monster and looked up facts about winter holidays.  Then I wrote questions to go along with the facts.  I had the students scan my FactMonster QR code and then search for the answers to the questions.
2. Anytime is a good time for some Toontastic!!! And with all the new updates this app never gets old. If you do not have Toontastic on your classroom ipad you need to get it now.  The entire tool box is a steal at $9.99.  With this purchase you get all characters past, present and future! Best 10 bucks you will ever spend. Around the holidays you can assign a historical Toontastic or make them work in pairs or small groups to create cartoons. It is important to explain what you want the end product to resemble..length, number of characters, amount of dialog.  
3. Yesterday my students and I created animated Snowmen using Keynote. I started by adding one slide with a simple circle on it.  Then I copied the slide and added another circle, as so on until I had created a snowman.  I then added a Christmas tree. The students loved it and  enjoyed making their own snowmen.  It was a great way to show the students some of the features of keynote and then have them practice using them.  
4.  Free Tech 4 Teachers  - this site has so many great resources I don't know where to start. Check it out!