Wonderful Winter Holidays Around the World
Integrated Lesson Plans and Art Projects
Before I start our 12 Days until Christmas in the Classroom Countdown, I love to teach about Winter Holidays around the world. Every year this is always one of my class’ favorite lessons! My class really enjoys learning about new holidays and how they are celebrated around the world.
Each year, I teach my class about five Winter Holidays with this fun and engaging unit. I love starting with Diwali because it is celebrated before the other holidays in the unit and is a holiday that most of my students haven’t heard of before.
Lesson outline- teaching holidays around the world
I start the lesson by asking my students what they know and what they want to know about Diwali. We record their thinking on a KWL chart. Then I continue the lesson by projecting and reading aloud a text about Diwali. There are not many kid-friendly texts about Diwali so I wrote one that was appropriate for my students.
After reading the text to them, we dive into the information about Diwali. I wrote text dependent questions that go right along with the text. The students revisit the text as they answer and solidify new information about Diwali. Afterward, I model how to jot down notes from the text and then my students jot down their own notes.
To learn even more information about Diwali we watch this short video from National Geographic. My students love seeing what they just read about in real life. Their fascination with the festival of lights grows as we watch this clip. During the video, I allow them to jot down any new information they learned on their note sheets.
Then we use the notes to write a facts and draw a picture about Diwali. I model how to use my notes to help write three facts. Once they finish, I have them find a partner to share their writing with. I usually keep their writing from each day so they can be stapled together and sent home all at once. I tell the students they can go home and teach their families about each holiday using their own writing. They get very excited about this.
We can’t learn about these holidays without creating an art piece to compliment the writing. For Diwali, students make a paper rangoli. They can make any design using the pre-cut (or ripped) squares. My students always wish they could make one out of colored rice, but I am just not that brave!
The topic of winter holidays really caught my students’ attention!
They were engaged all throughout the lesson and were highly motivated to write about it. The best part was- by following this lesson outline, the students submitted some really well-written paragraphs with new vocabulary words.
Don’t miss out on the chance for students to gain a deeper understanding of cultures and holiday traditions around the world! Here are images from the other four holidays I each about for this unit. They are all included in our Holidays Around the World Lesson Plans for grades 1-3.
Holidays Around the World for Grades 4, 5 and 6!
My first graders loved the 1-3 pack so much we decided to make Winter Holidays Around the World Lesson Plans available for grades 4-6. Of course, we changed up the lesson structure for our older kiddos. In this upper grade pack, students become familiar with five Winter Holidays by reading the student texts (which are included) for each holiday.
Students research one of the winter holidays in an “expert group,” take notes, answer text dependent questions, and create a group holiday poster to share their information with the class. Groups use a poster presentation rubric as a reference while they are creating their poster and planning their presentation.
During the expert group presentations, classmates take notes to become familiar with all five holidays. Classmates in the audience write at least one fact for every holiday presented. Afterward, students are excited to create five amazing art projects related to each holiday. Here are the other four holidays that are included in this resource pack.
Our 1st-3rd grade holidays around the world unit includes:
Full lesson plans
5 Texts, one for each holiday
Text Dependent Question Cards
Multiple Note-taking sheet options
Multiple Writing sheet options
Art Project lesson plans and examples for each holiday
Our 4-6 Winter Holidays Unit includes:
Full Lesson Plans
5 Student Texts, one for each holiday
Text Dependent Question Cards
Note-Catchers for each holiday
Poster Photo Picture Cards
Poster Presentation Rubric
Art Project lesson plans and examples for each holiday
Students will become experts on Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Las Posadas after studying each holiday.
Through reading, note taking, oral presentations, art projects, and writing- students learn about Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Las Posadas.
Are you wondering how you’re ever going to find time during the crazy month of December to plan lessons about 5 different winter holidays? Don’t worry! We’ve done all the work for you! Click on the images below to purchase Winter Holidays Around the World for grades 1-3 or Winter Holidays Around the World for grades 4-6.
