Holidays Around The World is one of our favorite themes during the month of December. Students love learning about other cultures and all the things that make them unique. We spend about a week learning about these different holiday traditions.
Setting The Stage For A Holidays Around The World Unit
We begin our week with a discussion of holidays that are important to us and make a list of different holidays such as birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and July 4th.
Next, I tell the students that we’ll be learning all about how other people celebrate holidays all over the world. I show the students the Holidays Around The World anchor chart and tell them that we’ll be spending the next few days learning about some of the holidays on the chart.
Chinese New Year
The first holiday we learn about is Chinese New Year, which is celebrated at different times of the year and is based on the lunar calendar. It’s a time to make all things fresh and new and celebrate good luck and happiness.
We read the book Ruby's Chinese New Year by Vicky Lee and watched this a video for kids called The Story Of Chinese New Year. Next, we write a few things we learned about the holiday on our anchor chart.
Finally we make the first page of our Holidays Around The World interactive craft book. The students complete the page with a simple Chinese lantern craft.
We also make this free Lai-See envelope. When the students go to lunch, I leave a surprise of chocolate gold coins in the envelope for when they return!
Kwanzaa
On the next day of school, we learn about the holiday of Kwanzaa. This is an African American holiday that celebrates families and good values. Kwanzaa begins on December 26 and lasts for 7 days.
We read the non-fiction book Kwanzaa by M.C. Johnston and also Seven Candles For Kwanzaa by Andrea Pinkney and we write a few things that we learned about the holiday on our anchor chart.
The kids watch this short you tube video that explains the holiday to students and we complete the next page of our interactive craft book by making a simple Kinara craft.
The mkeka mat is used to cover the table for Kwanzaa. The students also make this mkeka mat by cutting black construction paper and weaving strips of red and green to make the mat.
Diwali
On day three, we learn about Diwali. We read the non-fiction book Diwali by Kate Torpie and watch this YouTube video that explains this holiday to students.
We make the next page in our interactive craft book, which has a simple candle craft for the page.
Hanukkah
Our next celebration is Hanukkah, also known as the festival of lights. We read the book Holidays Around The World: Celebrate Hanukkah and make the next page of our interactive craft book. On this page, the students make a menorah.
We play dreidel, which is a game of chance played with a top and some gold coins. I found these dreidels and plastic gold coins at the Dollar Tree and we use those for our game. I've also used chocolate gold coins, which the kids love!
Christmas
On the next day of school, we learn about the holiday of Christmas with the non-fiction book called Christmas by M.C. Hall. We learn that one of the Christmas traditions is Christmas caroling, so we put on our coats and hats and walk through the halls of our school singing carols at our classmates doors.
Next, we made the next page in our interactive craft book is a Christmas tree craft.
We make a simple Christmas ornament by stringing red, white and green beads on a pipe cleaner to make a candy cane. They make a beautiful addition to our classroom Christmas tree and the students are allowed to make paper ornaments at our art station. They add them to the tree all month long.
Ramadan
Finally, we end our celebration of Holidays Around The World with a lesson about Ramadon. We read another book by M.C. Hall called Ramadan and Lailah’s Lunchbox by Reem Faruqi. We learn that during Ramadan, people must faste from sun up to sun down and that Ramadan is a time to give and share with others.
We watch a video about Ramadon that gives a child’s perspective of the holiday and make the final page in our Holidays Around The World interactive craft book.
Are you ready to learn about different holidays and traditions around the world in your classroom? This resource has been updated to also include a Google Slides version which is perfect for your remote learning activities. You can grab this Holidays Around The World Unit here.
Looking for more ideas for December? Check out these posts:
SAVE THESE IDEAS
Take a minute to save these tips to your favorite December Pinterest board so you can remember them later!
