My teammates and I have been traveling "around the world" with our students, learning about various holiday traditions! We got some of these awesome ideas from Rachelle Smith's Holidays Around the World Unit.
We first travel from our school to the country using google Earth.
The kids think this is BEYOND awesome! If you have a smart board or promethean or even just a computer projector and you don't have google Earth, you should download it! I plan on using it a lot more since my grade level partner thought of it for this mini-unit.
Next, we read a book or watch a video about the country (sometimes both). We also have been adding information ourselves with the help of some google searching about holiday traditions.
The kiddos then fill out the "suitcase" packet filling in the blanks about what they learned about that country.
Then finally, we make a fun craft or do an activity to go with what we learned.
Here are some of our highlights...
Stockings for England...
Gingerbread Men for Germany...
Sparkly Poinsettias for Mexico...
We also have made shoes for the Netherlands, played Dreidel for Israel, thought about what Christmas would be like in the summer, made brooms & reindeer hats... so fun!
So what do you do for the holidays? And be sure to click on the link at the top to check out what other people are doing in their classroom for the holiday!
Ashlee,
ReplyDeleteMy kiddos started by brainstorming December holidays, chose one, wrote everything they knew and wondered about it, and then researched their holiday using our databases. They finish up by typing up their favorite facts on MaxWrite, and adding pictures. The kiddos LOVED learning about their holiday but I LOVE your ideas! These are definitely things I am going to add to my lessons when I do them next year. I love the idea of holidays around the world and using Google Earth to bring the idea home.
Katie
Teaching Voracious Learners