CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD

During the month of December, my second grade class celebrates Christmas Around the World.


After doing this unit, for 10 years, I think that I finally have it where it works efficiently and fun!


It starts in August, when the 3 ring binders are on sale. I buy the kind that are white and have a vinyl plastic insert in the front.We make "passports," which is a way for each student to be responsible for completing all projects. I use tagboard and make a card using Publisher, with an American flag on the front page and the words, Unofficial Passport to the World. Each country that we visit, has a passport page and is stamped with a star and a date when all projects are completed for that country.

• For each country, the students make a title page ( map, flag, and Christmas greeting in the language), a personal narrative of how they spent Christmas in that country, generated from discussion and research using http://www.santa.net/. , an art project, and food tasting.

Here I will list the art projects and food from each country:

Mexico: Art- tissue paper poinsettia petals and leaves painted on white paper with diluted white glue, Food- red and green corn chips with salsa and hot chocolate.

France: Art- Noel banners- white paper with the letters NOEL glued down the center, decorated with Christmas symbols on the sides, fringe and decorations added to the top and the bottom. Food- buche noel- ding dongs decorated with icing tubes, gumdrops and m&ms.

• Germany: Art- gingerbread men cut out of brown tagboard, decorated with stickers, markers and painted with white paint that I put some cinnamon flavoring in. We glue thes on foils os it looks like they are baking on a pan.Food- I baked giant gingerbread men using a cookie pan from wilton and Betty Crocker cookie mix. The students decorated these and delivered to the school office as a Christmas treat.

Australia- Art-crayon resist suns, and carolers made out of paper tubes as shown in http://www.familyfun.com/ Food- the students bring in their beach towels and have a picnic of snack pack pudding cups and mini ham sandwiches.

Norway- Art- oil crayon candles ( laminated so not to smear), Food- St. Lucia buns- refrigerator roll dough with a hole poked in the middle and filled with ligonberry jam.

Greece- Art- crosses made out of gold foil paper, embossed, Food- baklava- found in the frozen food section of my grocery store.

Any country can be used. I invite parents to come and share traditions. Each country has the title page, the narrative, and the art project in the notebook. We decorated our notebook by painting Christmas trees and laminating them, so they can go in and out of the front clear pocket easily. As each country is studied, a stickers that represents that country is put on their tree.
Mexico- poinsettia, France- a wiseman, or crecheGermany- gingerbread, Australia- beach umbrella or ball, Norway- a reindeer or candle, Greece- a cross.
Buy these for next year at the after Christmas sales!