Hooray for the Holidays
Beth Gasior, Jackie Galbreath, GT Resource Specialists
Holiday Comparisons
Let your students collect data on each of the December holidays. This Google doc, Comparing Winter Holidays, will make it simple for them to link to websites while they complete their research.
Deep Thinking with Christmas Trees
Visit the Byrdseed Gifted website, Go Deep with Christmas Trees for some ideas to add depth and complexity into learning about the holidays. Use the research choices in this Google Doc to get kids thinking about this holiday tradition. Christmas Tree Research Choices
White House Christmas Tree Arrival and Tree Research
Use this Google Doc, Which Type of Tree to Pick? to research types of trees used for Christmas trees. What are the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of each type? Then write a persuasive paragraph convincing others of the best type of tree. For a little inspiration, share the video below and have the students explore this website, White House Christmas Traditions.
Comparing Winter Holidays
Research - Christmas is Celebrated Around the World
Christmas in other countries.
World Celebrations - Independent Study
Use this Google Doc, "Celebrating Around the World" for a mini-independent study, extension for when students finish early, or springboard for classroom research. Within the Google Doc you will find these links:
History of Christmas
History of the Christmas Tradition Timeline or the History of Christmas Video can be used as a good discussion and/or research prompt in a lesson about culture. You could have your students select items from the timeline to research more in-depth and share their findings with each other. Try going a little deeper by assigning this Depth and Complexity Icon page Changes Over Time Activity.
The Truth About the North Pole
Have students watch this TED ED video, The Arctic vs. the Antarctic to learn about the North and South Poles. Use the Dig Deeper links for students who want to do further research.
Holiday Math
Analyze Movie Data
In this Yummy Math lesson, students analyze holiday movie data. They will round, estimate, compare, calculate percent increase, consider the most appropriate graphical representation and graph the data ... along with sharing what they have seen and enjoyed.
Why Does the Date of Hanukkah Keep Changing?
In this Yummy Math lesson, students look at the Hebrew calendar and appreciate the incredible mathematics involved in creating a calendar that aligns both the moon's rotation about the Earth and the Earth's rotation about the Sun.
Gift Wrapping Challenge
Engage your class in real life problem solving activity called the Gift Wrapping Challenge. In this activity, Brian asks students to figure out what facts that they might need, deduce those facts from the images, and make some good estimations in order to predict the amount of wrapping paper necessary to wrap a couple of gifts.
Christmas Tree Math
Solve this Christmas Tree Light problem - estimate the number of lights you need for the Christmas tree.
Christmas Carol Math
Here are two great learning math challenges centered around the song "Twelve Days of Christmas."
- Students uncover the true cost of Christmas as they travel around the world, play critical thinking games, and uncover data required to answer the question: “What is the true cost of the 12 Days of Christmas?
- The 12 gifts of Christmas have disappeared. Students must travel the globe to locate them and calculate their true cost. Gift Hunt uses Google Street View to take you on an interactive adventure across five continents as you track down each of the gifts and find out how much they cost in 2012.
Create Holiday Word Problems
Check out this great data on the winter holidays. Can your students create real-world word problems using the facts and figures from this website?
Holiday Reading
For an Archaeologist, Ancient Bones are Like Christmas!
Read this article For an Archaeologist, Ancient Bones are Like Christmas. This article clearly uses a simile to explain how an archaeologist feels about ancient bones. Can you write the titles of five other news articles modeled after this article's title? Challenge yourself to think of a variety of professions.
Rockefeller Center Gets Giant Tree
TweenTribune article, Rockefeller Center Gets Giant Tree is about the early arrival of the Rockefeller Center tree.
Paying to See Santa
After reading this Newsela article, Kids Talk to Santa and Parents Pay Up, students can debate paying to see Santa or seeing Santa for free.
Holiday Fun!
Tell a Joke.
Share an Unusual Christmas Traditions. Students will enjoy reading about these unique holiday customs. They might want to choose one and do some further research!
Have a sing-a-long!