Looking to bring some festive joy and cultural learning to your classroom this December? Teaching Holidays Around the World can be a fantastic way to explore diverse holiday traditions with your students… But there are a lot of steps to planning out your lessons!
Here are the top steps that will help you outline and teach your unit!
1. Pace It Out First
Time to determine how long you would like to teach this unit. Using a full month of cross-curricular integration is perfect for this unit. Using these lessons and activities during your ELA block is a sound way to make sure students can learn all about Christmas Around the World. Furthermore, they can grasp informational standards for basic learning skills.
Whether you choose to use all four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas to teach this unit, or if you just use the 1-2 weeks before the break to teach it, I have created a FREEBIE for you! If you sign up for my email list, you’ll get this freebie delivered right to your email. This freebie is to help you outline your entire unit on paper before typing up your lesson plans or writing them into your planner. Here, you can click the image below to grab your freebie.
There are two suggestions I have for you. Since there is so much to this four-week unit, some of you may have different opportunities for how much you can teach.
- One option is to teach all ten countries that I cover in my Christmas Around the World units, but only spend 1-2 days on each country. This way you can squeeze in all ten countries, plus some review at the end, into those sixteen days.
- Another option to choose is to lessen the number of countries you teach so that you can give more information. For this strategy, I would suggest only teaching 5-6 countries within my units, but spending three full days in each country.
2. Collect Any Schema or Prior Knowledge
KWL charts are fundamental during this unit. Many teachers in all grade levels teach a unit of Christmas Around the World, so it’s important to see what your students know before coming into your four-week unit. A KWL chart will especially help gather that information, plus it will make their learning intentional over the next few weeks.
I have two options in my Christmas Around the World unit for collection prior knowledge beforehand. I provide a KWL chart and a schema/misconceptions chart. Depending on which terminology you use in your classroom, you will have a prior knowledge sheet to start your unit off with.
3. Find a Way to Store All the Crafts & Activities
There is a large amount of activities, crafts, writing papers, mini-books, and other resources the students will create while learning. Therefore, I suggest keeping ALL of their resources in one folder and waiting to send it all home on one day. Instead of sending it home one day at a time, they will get to go home and show their parents their huge folder and explain all of their new knowledge about Christmas Around the World.
Shown in the picture above is another FREEBIE I’m giving to my blog readers. The cover artwork you see in the picture above is a fun decoration you can glue or staple to the front of these file folders to help identify whose folder is whose.
You can grab file folders on Amazon or at Target for your classroom to help keep this all organized. Here, you’ll find my Amazon affiliate link for a pack of 36 colorful file folders for this four-week unit.
4. Stock up on Great Read Alouds
Add these children’s books to your Holidays Around the World lesson plans! Titles like A World of Cookies for Santa and The Legend of the Poinsettia introduce students to traditions from many cultures. Pair each read-aloud with a class activity or writing response for a well-rounded, engaging holiday experience. Each book has a link to my Amazon affiliate link.
- A World of Cookies for Santa by M.E. Furman
- Walk This World at Christmastime by Debbie Powell
- The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola
- December Holidays Around the World by Baby Professor
5. Two Ways To Track Countries Taught
To start off your unit, make some passports. This can be Day 1 of your unit outline. Get students excited about “traveling” around the world and all the countries they’ll get to see. In their passport, there is a daily writing page to write 1-2 facts about the country they’ve learned about. This can stay in their file folder and get added to each day. The book will be complete after your final country lesson.
One way to track countries is using a passport. You can also track the countries you’ve learned as a class by making a bulletin board of your learning. As you learn about a country, you can staple the poster to a shared bulletin board. These letters and posters are part of my Christmas Around the World unit!
6. Breaking Down Each Country’s Traditions
In the next few images, you’re going to see sample pictures of a study of France. Read below each picture to learn more about each resource included in your units.
Here, to introduce each country, I suggest using a circle map that shows images and displaying it for students. Then, they will see a few things they’re going to learn about in the next few days about that country prior to studying. In my unit, I provide a circle map and a teacher script sheet to read aloud to your students.
Reading is also very important during your unit, especially if you’re using this as a cross-curricular unit and taking time out of your ELA block. Here, in my full unit, I provide a cut and staple mini-book about each country’s celebrations.
Also, I created an add-on passages pack that provides passages and a comprehension page. The reason I added this is because I had a few teacher requests asking for more reading material within the unit!
Following students’ reading activities, it’s a great time to work on fact writing. Here, there are a few fact writing sheets within my unit. Plus, a cut and glue fold and snip book that quizzes students on their new knowledge.
7. Snag Ready-to-Go Holidays Around the World Sets
Bring cultural celebrations into the classroom with my Holidays Around the World Unit, which offers engaging activities, passports, a bulletin board, and lessons focused on winter holidays from various cultures.
Christmas Around the World Unit
For a comprehension focus, my Holidays Around the World Reading Passages provide easy-to-read content with follow-up comprehension questions.
Christmas Around the World Reading Passages
Want to organize your unit? Grab this freebie!
FREE PLANNING SHEETS AND FOLDER COVER!
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