Go beyond traditional Christmas trappings with educational technology.
Research by organizations such as the Smarter Kids Foundation and The George Lucas Educational Foundation continue to support the use of the latest technology in the classroom. Technology, most of the research finds, engages students and increases retention of information. Smartboard activities enhance any curriculum, including lessons with themes such as Christmas. With a Smartboard, Christmas activities and lessons become more than holiday filler. They become moments for learning about history, culture and traditions.
Christmas Around the World
Explore Christmas traditions around the world using a website such as the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum site. Provide students with an oversized, blank outline map of the world on which they can write country names and a fact or two.
One by one, allow students to come to the Smartboard and choose a country's holiday traditions to explore using the website. The student stays at the Smartboard and either reads the information himself or follows along as the teacher reads. After the reading, the student at the Smartboard calls on students at their seats to name one important fact from the reading. He then underlines that fact on the Smartboard. After underlining three facts, the student returns to his seat so another student can choose a country. Students choose one fact from each country to write on their world maps.
"The Twelve Days of Christmas"
Divide your students into 12 groups of two or three students. Assign each group one of the verses from the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas." During the 12 days leading up to the Christmas break, student groups become teachers using the Smartboard. Each day, the group of students teaches the rest of the students something related to that group's verse of the song.
Students can use websites or create slide presentations to display information about their topics and to teach using the Smartboard. For example, on the third day, the group teaches about French hens, the subject of that verse. Provide students with a folded paper book form in which to record information about each of the 12 days of Christmas from the student presentations. Students should title the book "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and write the corresponding verse on each page of the book along with the student information.
"The Night Before Christmas" Activity
Use an online source to display the text of the poem by Clement C. Moore commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas." Some sites offer original manuscripts and older versions of the poem, which is actually titled "A Visit From Saint Nicholas," for comparison. Read the poem with students. Have students come to the board one at a time to circle pairs of rhyming words. Discuss the rhyming pattern.
After reading and studying the above poem, write a new version of the poem together. Display the original poem on half the Smartboard. Prompt students to follow the same rhyming scheme and create a school version of the poem. You or a student volunteer write the students' version of the poem as they create it together in class. You may need to start the poem for them with a line such as " 'Twas two weeks before Christmas, and all through the school..." and then have the students finish the poem, contributing verses orally. When the poem is complete, print it from the Smartboard so that students have a copy of their class creation.
