Celebrating the Holiday Season

The holiday season always comes upon us so quickly.  I don't know about you, but for me, the days after Thanksgiving move twice as fast!

In our school, we have two multiage classrooms.  Needless to say, we work very closely together and spend many hours planning to make it all work.  Over the years, we wanted to move away from our regular "Holiday Celebration" and towards something the children could share.

Because we have children for two years in our program, we need to make each year they are with us a little bit different.  For the holiday season, we alternate our holiday celebration with two themes:

1.  Holiday FAMILY Traditions and 

2.  Holiday Traditions around the World.

This year, we are doing the Holiday Traditions around the world.  We have a nice research project to go along with it.  We have typically given this as a home project, but it could easily be adapted for a classroom research project.

Here's how it works:

1. The kids choose which country & holiday they would like to learn more about.  

2. They do some research.

3. They create a small project to represent what they've learned.

4. On the day of the festival, we set up our room with our projects on display.

5. Half of the class stand by their projects and present while the other half of the class "visits" each  

   country.  The "visiting" half gets to keep track of what country they visit on their "passport."

6. We repeat this process, switching the presenter/visitor roles.

7. Afterwards, we discuss and/or write about our travels around the world!

* We use the procedure above as a "warm-up."  On the day of our actual Holiday Celebration, we invite the parents in to come visit all of the countries as all of the children present.  

This project has been well-loved by all over the years so I thought I would share it with you.
Click on the packet cover above to get yours!