Holiday Celebrations

How and Why Do We Celebrate  Special Days? Teacher Sponsor:  Betty Foster bfoster1@esu10.org, Jefferson Elementary, Grand Island, Nebraska Curriculum Area: Social Studies, Reading, Writing Ages and Grade Levels:  All Timeline:  December - February Brief Description of Lesson:  We live in nations and countries with many people and varied cultural life styles. We can learn about the varied celebrations in December to understand the traditions and customs of others. We will do this through an email request sent out on various lists.  Please share your holiday celebrations with us. Concept: Traditions people have are the result of culture they live with in. Celebrations in December are as diverse as the people in our country, and the world.
Holidays: A Growing List of Seasonal Holidays	How We Celebrate:  Your Answers Will Go Here
Lesson Design: Teaching Ideas	Rubrics and Assessment Suggestions
Standards: Which Standards Does This Lesson Address?	Holiday Links and Information:  Links to Holiday Sites
Required Resources:  What Do You Need in Order to Participate?	How to Participate:  How to Register and Prepare

Holidays and Special Days

3 - First Sunday of Advent (Christian, Roman Catholic)

5 - St. Nicholas Day (Netherlands)

6 - St. Nicholas Day (International)

8 - Bodhi Day (Buddhist, Hindu)

16-23 - Las Posadas (Mexico)

22 - Hanukkah (Chanukah, Jewish)

22 - Lailat Ul-Qadr (Islamic, Muslim, Moslem)

22 - Winter Solstice (International)

24 - Wigilia (Poland)

25 - Christmas (Christian, Roman Catholic, International)

26 - Boxing Day (Canada, United Kingdom)

26 - Id Al-Fitr (Islamic, Muslim)

26-Jan 1 - Kwanzaa (African-American)

29 - Japanese New Year (Japan, Buddhist, Hindu)

31 - New Year's Eve (United States, International)

        Back to Top

How to Participate:

• Register your project by sending mail to Betty Foster bfoster1@esu10.org.

• Use the Lesson Design, Links, and Rubrics below as you design activities.

• Select the best work from your classroom.

• Post your holiday information on your web site and we will link to you, or e-mail it to Betty bfoster1@esu10.org and we will post it for you.

 Back to Top

Resources Needed:
Hardware, Software, Time, etc.

Hardware Needed: Computer with Internet access

Computer to Student Ratio: for some activities 1-2, some activities 1-class

Software Needed: Internet, email

Amount of time needed online: 20 minutes to start, later time to check email for letters

 Back to Top

Lesson Design

1. Capture the attention of the learners by connecting them to the concept in a personal way.

Discussion of family traditions in celebrating their Thanksgiving dinner and what foods they serve.

 2. Guide the students to reflect on the activity.

List on an overhead sheet the varied foods the class says that their family eats. Notice the variety of foods, and discuss why the class thinks they eat those certain foods. 

3. Give the learners a new and wider view of the concept by connecting to their personal knowing of the concept.

Discuss what is known about the first Pilgrim Harvest Feast and the foods. Prepare a K-W-L chart to show what they know and what they would like to learn.

4. Provide an acknowledged body of information related to the concept.

In our Social Studies Book, Comparing Communities, read about the Thanksgiving Celebration on pages 195-199. Pay special attention to vocabulary: Pilgrim, tradition, national holiday.

5. Provide a hands-on activity for practice and mastery of the elements of the concept.

Using a teacher created worksheet, answer the following questions: Why do you think people celebrate Thanksgiving? When and why did the Pilgrims come to this country? What happened in the first year they were here? Why did the Pilgrims invite Indians to the Harvest Feast? Who made Thanksgiving a national holiday and when? Then, discuss the answers focusing on the word tradition and it's meaning.

Follow up with a dictionary sheet, (as in the reading assessment materials) and use the Social Studies book glossary to define Pilgrims and tradition.

6. Learners apply the concept to a constructive project.

• Have a class discussion of what the celebrations are that are in the month of December, January, or February. Ask the students if these are the only celebrations, and how could we find out?

• LINKS:  As a class, check out the web page with various dates and celebrations at:

  • http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/december.html

  • http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/january.html

  • http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/february.html

• Then find out which ones the students know how people celebrate.

• Discuss the varied ways to look for people to answer their questions about these celebrations. Select two or three web sites on which to post this request. The teacher will set these up, and have the student observe the posting of the project.

• If they do not get answers, have a short lesson on using the student search engines. In the computer lab use Ask Jeeves to find out more information about topics. Print out answers, and then share with the class. These will be used for lack of response in any area.

7. Refine and edit work.

Collect the emails and have the students find which celebrations are reported on, the place the answer came from, and the age of the persons. Also use any information that the students found on the search engines, and printed out. Put them with the email collection.

Begin to organize the answers by having the kids learn to put them into a word processing document which they can write and the teacher can copy and paste into the web page linked to this planning page. Have the students create illustrations that can be used on the web pages to go with the topics.

Send out the web page URL to those who participated, using email address from the emails received.

 Back to Top

How Does This Lesson Relate to Standards?

• Nebraska State Technology LEARNS Competencies:

1. Basic Operations and Concepts - 2.1.3, 2.1.4

3. Productivity Tools - 2.3.3, 3.3.2

4. Technology Communication Tools - 2.4.1, 5.4.1

District Technology Objectives:

• Access teacher identified web sites

• Use of email as a communication tool

• Other State Standards (Compiled by Putnam Valley Schools)

 Back to Top

Rubrics and Assessment Suggestions

• NREL's Six Traits of Writing ToolKit

• NREL's Six Traits of Writing Rubric
  NOTE: You need Acrobat Reader (FREE) to view this PDF File

Rubric for use of Technology

Rubric for Word Processing of Information

 Back to Top

Back to December - February Menu