By Mr Hull's Movie Guides
Watch the Trailer
Why Watch This Movie With Your Students
Here's what your students naturally take away from the movie, whether through themes, values, ideas, or perspectives.
🎁 A fresh take on the Santa Claus origin story. Rather than retelling a familiar legend, Klaus builds its own mythology from scratch. The traditions that students recognize, letters to Santa, stockings, toys for good children, all emerge from the specific circumstances of Jesper and Klaus's friendship rather than arriving fully formed. Watching those traditions develop gives the story a genuine sense of discovery.
🤝 The central message is demonstrated rather than stated. The movie's theme, that a selfless act sparks another, is spoken aloud once but played out across the whole story. Students can see it working at the level of individual characters and at the level of the whole town. That makes it a useful text for discussing how theme functions in narrative, since the idea is embedded in the plot rather than delivered as a lesson.
✏️ Jesper's character arc is clear and trackable. Jesper starts the movie as genuinely unpleasant: spoiled, dishonest, and motivated entirely by self-interest. His change over the course of the story is gradual and believable, driven by his relationship with Klaus and the children of Smeerensburg. Students who struggle with character analysis often find it easier to work with a character whose transformation is this visible.
🎨 The animation style is worth talking about in its own right. Klaus uses a hand-drawn technique with 3D lighting that gives the movie a distinctive look different from most animated features. The contrast between the grey, angular world of Smeerensburg at the start and the warmer, softer version that emerges as kindness spreads is built into the visual design. Students with an eye for how movies use imagery to carry meaning have a lot to notice here.
💌 Letter writing is central to the plot. The whole story is set in motion by letters: children writing to Klaus, Jesper delivering them, Klaus responding with toys. The connection between written communication and human connection is built into the movie's structure, which makes the story a natural fit for classrooms where letter writing is part of the curriculum.
Age Suitability and Content
This movie is rated PG.
📋 A free editable parent permission slip is available for this movie. It explains the educational benefits of watching movies in class and includes a space for parental consent. → Download Free Permission Slip on TpT (Free resource)
⚠️ Things to be aware of:
- Mild slapstick violence: characters involved in a town feud throw things, fire a cannon, and pull each other around. Nothing graphic.
- Brief rude humor including a naked character in a bathtub, covered by bubbles.
- Mild insults: 'shut up, you idiot,' 'go home, loser,' 'brat.'
- No sexual content. No language beyond mild insults. A passing mention of sherry.
How My Movie Guide Helps You Teach It
📚 English Language Arts Teachers. Klaus connects naturally to ELA units on character development, theme, and persuasive and creative writing. The movie's letter-writing premise gives teachers a direct bridge to the guide's letter writing task. The guide covers comprehension across three differentiated sets, plus creative writing, character description, and sentence-level work, making it a flexible fit for a range of ELA objectives.
🗣️ ESL and ELL Teachers. The multiple choice comprehension set works well with ESL and ELL students, and the movie's strong visual storytelling carries significant meaning without relying on dialogue. The language is clear and the story is easy to follow through image and action alone, which supports comprehension for students still developing their English skills.
🎬 Substitute Teachers and Cover Lessons. Klaus is a self-contained Christmas movie with a clear story and a positive message, and the guide is organized across three clearly labeled parts. It works well as a cover lesson before the holidays with no setup required from the substitute.
🏠 Homeschool Parents. Klaus is a strong Christmas pick for home learners in the elementary and lower middle school range. The guide's three question sets allow the activity to be scaled to the learner, and the creative writing and puzzle activities extend the lesson across more than one session.
💙 SEL Teachers. Klaus is built around SEL themes: kindness, generosity, moving past grudges, and the ripple effect of a single good action on a community. Jesper's journey from self-interest to genuine care for others gives SEL teachers a relatable arc to discuss with students. The guide does not include dedicated SEL activities, but the comprehension questions keep students engaged with the story's emotional beats throughout the viewing.
🌟 Supporting All Learners Movie guides can be a wonderfully calm fit for students with autism, learning difficulties, and mild to severe disabilities. The structured format gives every student a clear purpose during viewing, easing uncertainty and allowing them to engage at their own pace. If you teach in a special education or learning support setting, you may find this guide a gentle and practical resource. Find out more about why movies work for diverse learners.
What's Inside the Guide
This is a 15-page classroom-ready resource.
Part 1: Comprehension Questions
Three differentiated question sets covering the movie in chronological order. The first set contains 40 questions requiring full sentence answers; the second contains 30 questions (10 removed from the 40-question set); the third contains 30 multiple choice questions with three options each, suitable for younger students and ESL and ELL learners. Answer keys are included for all three sets.
Part 2: Letter Writing, Character Description, and Sentence Writing
Three creative activities. Students imagine they are living in Smeerensburg and write a letter to Klaus listing the good things they have done that year, including a drawing of the toy they would like. They then choose a favorite character from the movie and write a character description covering appearance, personality, and what they liked and disliked about them, with a drawing. Finally, students write sentences using each letter of the word 'Klaus,' then write about moments in the movie where they felt sad, happy, and excited.
Part 3: Word Search and Crossword
A 10-question crossword with the answers forming the words to find in the accompanying word search, plus 5 hidden bonus words. Answer key included.
“Was a great activity before the holidays. A great way to talk about the holidays with a religious background. Kids really liked the extension activities.”
— David W.
“What a fun resource and educational to use before Winter Break! We did this after reading "The Gift of the Magi."”
— Heather J.
How These Guides Work: From Movie to Lesson
A movie is not a break from learning. It reaches students through sight, sound, and story at once, engaging the brain in ways text alone does not, and the structured work around it is what turns the viewing into a genuine lesson. You can read the research behind this on the Why Movies Work page.
- A Teacher Notes and General Directions page opens the guide with a brief overview of everything inside: what the movie is about, then each part of the guide in order with a short description of what it entails. You know what to expect from the whole resource before you hand out a single page, so you can pick up the guide cold and teach it the same day.
- Answer keys are included for the comprehension question sets, so grading is quick and you are not rewatching the movie to check answers. Some guides also include example answers for the creative and written activities.
- Print and go: classroom ready, with no additional preparation needed. Print one the morning you need it and the lesson is ready.
- Substitute and first-timer friendly. A guide can be handed to a substitute or picked up by a teacher covering the topic for the first time. Nobody running the session needs to have seen the movie.
- Differentiated comprehension sets. Most guides include two or three question sets at different difficulty levels, and most include a multiple-choice option that works well for ESL and ELL students. One class set covers your strongest readers, your strugglers, and your language learners without separate prep.
- Activities that go beyond recall. Each guide includes structured activities that ask students to engage with the movie, not just watch it, ranging from creative and written tasks to discussion and critical thinking questions depending on the guide. That variety matters in a mixed classroom: a student who freezes on a written question set may show real understanding through a drawing or a creative task, and a confident writer gets room to go beyond recall. For the teacher, it turns a movie session into work that can actually be assessed: comprehension questions show whether students followed the plot, and the activities beyond them show whether they understood it.
