Winter Holidays Lesson Plan: Culture

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Winter Holidays, and supports the standard of explaining the significance of holidays and observances. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students: Which winter holidays do you celebrate? How do you celebrate them? What are your family’s customs or traditions?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read aloud the description on the Winter Holidays topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Assign Related Reading. Have students read one of the following articles: “Did You Know?” or “Language.” Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the Winter Holidays Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about winter holidays while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs. 

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a movie describing a winter holiday you celebrate, or one you learned about, describing its history, traditional foods, customs, etc.
  • Make-a-Map: Make a concept map comparing and contrasting the traditions of different winter holidays. 
  • Creative Coding: Code a sorting game where players categorize traditions and stories by related winter holiday. 
  • Primary Source Activity: Read the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” by Clement Clarke Moore, and cite details to answer the accompanying questions.

More to Explore  

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of holidays with these topics:  Christmas, Lunar New Year, and New Year’s.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Related:

    Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, BrainPOP, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.3