The winter holiday season is the perfect time to teach your first or second grade students about the holidays that are celebrated all around the world.
Why teach students about holidays around the world?
Teaching students about how winter holidays are celebrated around the world exposes students to cultural norms and traditions that are different from their own. This is so important in terms of teaching about diversity and tolerance for those that are different from them.
Additionally, this can be a great way to celebrate the holidays in a way that does not specifically center Christmas. This is especially great for students who do not celebrate Christmas or holidays in general.
Fun and easy ways to teach about holidays around the world:
You may have seen holidays around the world being taught as a travel unit where students receive a passport and "travel" to different parts of the world to learn about different holidays.
While this is one great way to teach students about the holidays, creating passports and keeping up with them can be tedious, especially if you get really busy during the holiday season.
I like to teach holidays around the world in a way that allows me to incorporate it in all of my subject matter so that students are still keeping track with our curriculum and standards AND learning about holidays.
I like to teach about Hanukkah, Diwali, Los Posadas, Ramadan, St. Lucia, Kwanzaa, and Lunar/Chinese New Year in my holidays around the world unit.
I use this activity bundle HERE
ELA/Reading: Reading books about each holiday around the world is a great way to teach students about different holidays while also encouraging them to comprehend a text.
Writing: Having students write opinion pieces about their favorite holiday they learned about is a great way to extend your holidays around the world unit into writing time.
Math: I like to have students complete color by number activities during a unit like holidays around the world. Not only do students get to practice their addition and subtraction skills, they also get a chance to color a beautiful, themed picture.
Bonus: One really great way to reinforce topics and vocabulary students have learned about holidays around the world is using BINGO. A bingo game will teach them vocabulary as you read them clues and they have to guess which object you are describing.
I also like to have students complete word searches as a fun way to identify and locate holiday-specific vocabulary.
I have all of these activities featured in my Holidays Around the World activity bundle. Click the button below to see what's included!
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