If your children are like mine, they open their holiday gifts in a frenzy of activity, spend two days playing with them, and then move on. Give yourself the gift that keeps on giving with fun educational books that will entertain your children for weeks. Perfect for holiday travels, indoor activities, and boredom busters, these hands-on activity books turn learning into fun and entertaining activities. Get creative and pair your activity book with a game or themed activity for the perfect gift duo.
Find your child’s favorite subject and plan away with our educational holiday gift guide:
Science/STEM Theme
Wrap up these activity books with a science kit for a fun gift idea for kids!
Build your child’s understanding of physical, life, and earth science with colorful and engaging science activities. The short stories and hands-on activities will turn your child into an investigator.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Skill Sharpeners: Science for grades PreK–6
Smart Start: STEM introduces important science concepts through science stories, activities, and STEM challenges. Each activity engages young learners in creating simple projects of their own unique design.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Smart Start: STEM for grades PreK–1
Skill Sharpeners: STEAM
Skill Sharpeners STEAM workbooks use real-world problems and project-based learning to teach engagement, empathy, problem-solving, and collaboration. Your kids will become real-world problem solvers all while creating fun, hands-on projects.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Skill Sharpeners: STEAM for grades PreK–6
STEM/STEAM Theme Gift Pairings
Add critical and creative thinking games, toys, and puzzles for a fun STEM-themed gift. Keep in mind that STEM toys should be age-appropriate and offer longevity for long-lasting entertainment and creativity.
Here are some fun examples of STEM gifts that stimulate creativity and encourage learning:
- Magna-Tiles or Magformers
- The Gravity Maze
- GoldieBlox Ruby Rails Coding Action Figure
- Kanoodle
- Creative Kids Flakes
- Project Mc2 Chemistry We Heart Chemistry
Critical and Creative Thinking Skills Theme
Skill Sharpeners: Critical Thinking
The variety of fun and creative activities in this series will challenge your child to use higher-order thinking skills based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Every page provides a new and interesting activity that will help your children think outside the box and tap into their creativity.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Skill Sharpeners: Critical Thinking for grades PreK–6
This is my top gift pick for young children for an all-around educational gift that is also entertaining. Each full-color book provides mazes, riddles, hidden pictures, things to cut out, dot-to-dots, and other engaging, age-appropriate activities.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Never-Bored Kid Book for ages 4–10
Over 80 games and brain teasers provide screen-free fun to boost critical and creative thinking skills! Keep kids engaged with activities that include sticker activities, logic and reasoning, word play, puzzles, mazes, graphs, hidden pictures, tongue twisters, and more!
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Brain Games and Activities for Ages 4–11
Critical and Creative Thinking Skills Gift Pairings
Wrap up age-appropriate games and art supplies with the activity book to boost kids’ critical thinking skills. Examples include:
- Uno
- Qwirkle
- Shut the Box (dice game)
- Dominoes
- Sudoku Puzzles
- Mastermind Game: The Strategy Game of Codemaker vs. Codebreaker
- Markers
- Paste
- Scissors
Reading Theme
These activity books along with a favorite story book or novel make the perfect gift to nurture a love of reading!
Smart Start: Read and Write
Give your kids a head start on next year’s reading and writing skills with Smart Start: Read and Write. Kids will improve their reading and writing abilities with alphabet games, spelling activities, word searches, and other fun learning activities.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Smart Start: Read and Write for grades PreK-1
Smart Start: Sight Words
Improve reading fluency by teaching your kids sight words and high-frequency words with Smart Start! Through entertaining, full-color stories and interactive learning activities, kids will learn new sight words, high frequency words, and improve their reading abilities.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Smart Start: Sight Words for grades PreK-1
Foster your child’s love of reading with colorful stories and activities. Accompanying activity pages provide engaging activities such as rhyming, word searches, and crossword puzzles.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Skill Sharpeners: Reading for grades PreK–6
Help your child learn to read with the help of fascinating animals! From chameleons to kangaroos, the beautiful animal photographs and stories in this activity book will take little learners on an animal adventure around the world, while they practice reading and writing skills.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Listen and Learn: Animals for grades PreK–6
Reading Gift Pairings
Wrap up the reading activity book with a new novel, storybook, flashcards, or book of poems. Some holiday favorite books, include:
Grades K-3
- Arthur’s Christmas by Marc Brown
- Franklin’s Big Book of Stories (Kids Can Read) by Sharon Jennings and Sean Jeffrey
- Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Grades 2-6
- Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection by Bill Watterson
- Garfield Fat Cat by Jim Davis
Writing Theme
Fun activity books, journals, and games that build vocabulary are wonderful educational gifts for kids of all ages.
Skill Sharpeners: Spell and Write
Colorful themed stories and activity pages motivate even the most reluctant writers, while also building spelling skills.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Skill Sharpeners: Spell and Write for grades PreK–6
Writing Gift Pairings
Wrap up the activity book with a writing journal or new game, such as:
- Scrabble Junior
- Bananagrams
- Apples to Apples Junior
- Lulu Jr. Illustory Book-Making Kit
Geography Theme
Engage your child in exploring the world while learning important map skills and geography concepts. The reading selections and activities take children beyond basic geographic understandings and into unique ecosystems, biomes, places and regions, histories, cultures, and social movements within our world.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Skill Sharpeners: Geography for grades PreK–6
Geography Gift Pairings
Wrap up the activity book with a new geography-themed game, map puzzle, kids atlas, or globe.
- Gamewright Scrambled States
- Children’s Illustrated Atlas
- Waypoint Geographic GyroGlobe 4″
Math Theme
Practice important math concepts with colorful games and puzzles. Topics cover grade-appropriate math practice in fun and engaging thematic formats. The fun games and puzzles included make practicing math facts so much fun your children won’t even realize they are learning.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Skill Sharpeners: Math for grades PreK–6
Make math fun with engaging and colorful learning activities that teach math using a variety of subjects and activities!
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Smart Start: Math for grades PreK–1
Each flashcard set provides sturdy, colorful cards that practice basic math skills, as well as ideas for games to use with the cards. As a bonus, each set provides a unique link to corresponding online timed tests for interactive practice!
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Learning Line Flashcards: Counting 1–20 for grades PreK–1
Math Gift Pairings
Pair a math activity book with math and logic games and puzzles for a creative stocking stuffer.
- Sudoku
- Spot It
- Set
- Rubik’s cube
- Math for Love Prime Climb
- ThinkFun Zingo 1-2-3 Number Bingo Game
Take your gift buying to the next level and provide endless opportunities for your child to learn, grow, and play.
Jumbo Activity Books
Discover a variety of entertaining and educational activities for children in the Top Student jumbo activity books. Hundreds of colorful and engaging activities allow children to strengthen their skills across all curriculum areas. The mindful moments activities and reward stickers create enjoyable and fun learning opportunities for children.
Shop at Evan-Moor.com: Top Student activity book for grades PreK-6.
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View all Evan-Moor activity books for kids here: shop now.
Happy Holidays!
Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.