Date: June 22, 2000

Grade Level(s): 2, 3, 4, 5

Subject(s):

• Social Studies/World History
• Social Studies/Holidays

Description: Students create a presentation about how Christmas is celebrated in the country of their choice (no duplicates within the class.)

Goals: Students are prompted to contrast and compare traditions/customs of how Christmas is celebrated around the world.

Objectives: Students create a presentation about how Christmas is celebrated in the country of their choice, the class creates notes of 3-4 important facts for each country and the class completes a multiple choice exam.

Materials:

• Computer with Internet access
• Social studies notebook
• Presentation materials
• Posters
• Food samples
• Artifacts from the country
• Music

Procedure:

1. Students select a country based on their family background, friends, familiarity with the holiday traditions of a country, or their curiosity about a certain country's Christmas traditions.
2. Students access Internet sites to collect information on their country. (Some are listed in the Useful Internet Resources section of this lesson)
3. Students create their report and presentation.
4. After each presentation, the class records in their Social Studies notebook 3-4 facts that they consider worth remembering about each report. (The class agrees on these facts; i.e., everyone records the same data.)
5. The students complete a multiple choice exam custom-designed to the facts recorded by the class.

Assessment: Classroom presentation, student report, and multiple choice test

Useful Internet Resources:

Santa's Net
A collection of Christmas songs, recipes, and traditions from around the world
http://www.santas.net/welcome.htm