Only two more weeks 'til the Big Day! With that in mind, here are a few of many holiday links online. If you have others to share, please do! Post them as comments below!
Let's start with December holidays in other lands. This link is to the Multi-Cultural Calendar, a project by the Global Schoolhouse folks. Have your students read accounts of celebrations in other lands by the very children who experience them. The calendar is also searchable by month, by holiday and by country - a good resource even when it's not holiday time here! December Holidays can be found at http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/MCC/.
You know how fascinated kids are with other languages? Visit this site for audio files of voices the world over wishing holiday greetings. There's also the written greeting as well. The Voices of Christmas at http://www.holidays.net/christmas/voices.htm. Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr! (that's Gaelic...and not found on this site. I got it from Brain Boost - see last post!)
Looking for a new and different Christmas story for your older students? Preview this one - a tale about the origin of Comet and how he happened to become part of Santa's team. It's fiction, I think...The Fifth Reindeer at http://www.soubly.net/Fifth/fifth1.htm.
And here are some stories for the younger set. Elves in Santa's Workshop are making lots of toys and there are stories to go along with each one. Kids can opt to read the story themselves or have it read online to them. There's even an option to print out pages to color. Wait, there's more! Reindeer stories in the Reindeer Barn, Mrs. Claus's stories in the Kitchen...just click around! Stories from The North Pole - http://www.northpole.com/Workshop/. Ho, ho, ho!
At History.org, a historical researcher from Colonial Williamsburg recounts how Christmas was celebrated in colonial Virginia. Interesting that it wasn't a great time for kids! Click http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/xmas/customs.cfm for Colonial Christmas Customs.
Here's a holiday feature where students can design their own TIME For Kids magazine covers. Student choose from pictures posted on the site, compose the headlines (within the space constraints of the online program - using critical thinking!), and write up their own "Top 5" list. Click and the cover magically appears as the student designed it! Print and use the cover as a tie to student writing, having kids write the articles to accompany their headlines! Holiday News Mag-o-Matic available at http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/specials/articles/0,6709,880208,00.html.
Last, here's an online version of that favorite Christmas story, The Night Before Christmas. There's a page for each section of the story with arrows for kids to advance from one page to the next. Too bad the link to have the story read aloud is broken. Victorian illustrations accompany each page.....hey, they look oddly like the ones that were in my Little Golden Book version way back when! The Night Before Christmas at http://www.childrenstory.com/christmas/b41.html.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!
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2 comments:
What a great resource for your teachers. I may have to link to your Blog (with your permission) so that my teachers can access these websites.
Is there any way to make the "Post Comments" button more noticeable? Even on my blog the "comments" link is hidden.
Keep up the good work tech-lady!!
Chris: Great to hear from you and thanks for the comment! Sure, share this blog around. As far as the "Comments" font size, I think it's just part of the template. ~Chris
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