Holidays ED 41701

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HolidaysED 417-01

• By Christy Calvert
• Ashley Heitman
• Erin Anderson

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Lesson Plan

• Unit Social Studies
• Grade Level 3rd Grade
• Lesson Holidays
• Objectives The students will learn about a new
  holiday, and will learn new information about
  holidays they are already familiar with.
• The students will gain appreciation for the
  reason that supports that holiday being
  celebrated.

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Materials

• We will need access to a computer, the internet,
  a projection screen, time aloud in the cafeteria
  to make some of the food, corn husks, large bowl
  of water, twine or string, scissors,
  construction paper, watercolors or markers, glue,
  clean yogurt cups with lids, large popsicle
  sticks, low-temp hot glue gun and glue sticks,
  small dried beans, 1/8"-wide red and green
  ribbon, colored paper, masking tape, glue, paint
  or markers or crayons, and a Dreidel Game.

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Websites

• http//www.lessonplanspage.com/LACompareContrastMo
  useNightBeforeXMasIdea36.htm
• http//www.history.com/minisites/hanukkah/
• http//abcteach.com/USA/unit/proudcolor.htm
• http//www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/ednkc002.ht
  ml
• http//jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?pageC
  raftDisplaycraftid10749
• http//www.dotcomwomen.com/food/thanksgiving/tradi
  tional-pumpkin-pie.shtml
• http//www.mexonline.com/cinco.htm

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Christmas
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Christmas Continued

• The real reason Christians celebrate this holiday
  is because December 25 is Jesus' Birthday.
• We celebrate Christmas because it is a wonderful
  celebration, and a great opportunity to witness
  to others and to retell and celebrate the
  marvelous story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

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How Do You Celebrate Christmas in the Classroom?

• 1. Read aloud "The Mouse Before Christmas" by
  Michael Garland and then read aloud any version
  of "The Night Before Christmas."2. Hand out a
  Venn Diagram to each student. (two overlapping
  large circles.)3. Have the students write all
  of the similarities of the stories in the
  overlapping section of the Venn Diagram. Have the
  students then write the differences in the
  separate parts.

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Hanukkah

• Hanukkah is the annual Jewish festival celebrated
  on eight successive days beginning on the 25th
  day of Kislev, the third month of the Jewish
  calendar, corresponding, approximately, to
  December in the Gregorian calendar. It is also
  known as the Festival of Lights, Feast of
  Dedication, and Feast of the Maccabees. Hanukkah
  commemorates the rededication of the Temple of
  Jerusalem by Judas Maccabee in 165 B.C. after the
  Temple had been profaned by Antiochus IV
  Epiphanes, king of Syria and overlord of
  Palestine.

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How to Celebrate Hanukah in the Classroom!

• The Dreidel Game
• The four letters which appear on the four corners
  of a dreidel alude to the miracle of Hanukkah.
  They spell out Nes (N-miracle), Gadol (G-great),
  Haya (H-happened) and Sham (S-there, meaning in
  Israel). To begin the game, each player should
  have about 20 Peppermint Candy Drops. Each person
  puts one piece of candy in the middle of the
  table. Then each person takes a turn at spinning
  the dreidel. When only one piece of candy or no
  candy is left in the middle each player adds
  another piece of candy. When a player has all the
  candy, that person wins!
• For those of you who don't want to use candy for
  the game, we have also added "Points" to this
  game. You can grab a piece of paper and keep
  track of how many points you get! Who ever
  reaches 100 points first wins!

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Hanukah Continued We would teach the children
about the star of David and let them color this
one!
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Fourth of July

• Most people in the United States celebrate the
  4th of July, but do you know exactly why the
  holiday is so important to our country? Imagine
  how you would feel if someone older than you
  (maybe an older sister or brother) kept telling
  you what to do all of the time and kept taking
  more and more of your allowance. That is how the
  colonists felt in the years leading up to 1776.
  Great Britain kept trying to make the colonists
  follow more rules and pay higher taxes. People
  started getting mad and began making plans to be
  able to make their own rules. They no longer
  wanted Great Britain to be able to tell them what
  to do, so they decided to tell Great Britain that
  they were becoming an independent country. (To be
  independent means to take care of yourself,
  making your own rules and providing for your own
  needs.)

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Fourth of July Continued

• The Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  and they appointed a committee (a group of people
  working together to do a specific job) to write a
  formal document that would tell Great Britain
  that the Americans had decided to govern
  themselves. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson
  to write a draft (first try) of the document, so
  he worked for days, in absolute secret, until he
  had written a document that he thought said
  everything important that the committee had
  discussed. On June 28, 1776, the committee met to
  read Jefferson's "fair" copy (he put his best
  ideas together and wrote them neatly.) They
  revised (made some changes) the document and
  declared their independence on July 2, 1776. They
  officially adopted it (made it theirs) on July 4,
  1776. That is why we call it "Independence Day."
  Congress ordered that all members must sign the
  Declaration of Independence and they all began
  signing the "official" copy on August 2, 1776. In
  January of the next year, Congress sent signed
  copies to all of the states.

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Fourth of July Continued

• The Declaration of Independence is more than just
  a piece of paper. It is a symbol of our country's
  independence and commitment to certain ideas. A
  symbol is something that stands for something
  else. Most people can look at a certain little
  "swoosh" and know that it stands for "Nike."
  Well, the signers of the Declaration of
  Independence wanted the citizens of the United
  States to have a document that spelled out what
  was important to our leaders and citizens. They
  wanted us to be able to look at the Declaration
  of Independence and immediately think of the
  goals we should always be working for, and about
  the people who have fought so hard to make these
  ideas possible. The people who signed the
  Declaration risked being hanged for treason by
  the leaders in Great Britain. They had to be very
  brave to sign something that would be considered
  a crime! So every time we look at the Declaration
  of Independence, we should think about all of the
  effort and ideas that went into the document, and
  about the courage it took for these people to
  stand up for what they knew was right --
  independence!

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How to Celebrate The Fourth of July in the
ClassroomHave the students color this page and
write why they are proud to be an American!
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Why we Celebrate Thanksgiving

• We can trace this historic American Christian
  tradition to the year 1623. After the harvest
  crops were gathered in November 1623, Governor
  William Bradford of the 1620 Pilgrim Colony,
  "Plymouth Plantation" in Plymouth, Massachusetts
  proclaimed
• "All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones,
  do gather at the Meeting House, on the hill...
  there to listen to the pastor, and render
  Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His
  blessings
• This is the origin of our annual Thanksgiving Day
  celebration. Congress of the United States has
  proclaimed National Days of Thanksgiving to
  Almighty God many times throughout the following
  years. On November 1, 1777, by order of Congress,
  the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation was
  proclaimed, and signed by Henry Laurens,
  President of Continental Congress. The third
  Thursday of December, 1777 was thus officially
  set aside

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Thanksgiving in the ClassroomThis are activity
will allow the students to express themselves as
pilgrims and what they might have been like as a
child in the pilgrim days!

• 1. Soak the corn husks in warm water for about an
  hour until they become pliable. Then gather
  several damp husks and tie them together tightly
  with twine, about 1/2 inch from one end. 2. To
  make the head, hold the knotted end in one fist,
  then fold the husks down (as though peeling a
  banana) so that they cover the knotted end.
  Smooth out the husks to make a face, then secure
  them with a piece of twine around the doll's
  neck. 3. To make the arms, roll up a single
  husk and tie it off at both ends. Position the
  arms up between the husks, under the doll's neck.
  Smooth the husks over the arms to form the chest
  and back, then cinch in the waist with twine.
  4. For a skirt or legs, arrange several husks,
  inverted (like a skirt that has blown up over the
  doll's head) around the waist. Secure with twine,
  then fold the skirt down. For legs, divide the
  husks into two parts, tying each bunch at the
  knees and ankles. 5. Use construction paper to
  fashion outfits or use markers and watercolors to
  give the illusion of clothes or to add on facial
  features. To make hair, hats or headdresses, glue
  on little strips of construction paper. 6.
  Attach sticks to the backs of the dolls for
  mobility. For additional fun, build a doll stage
  and put on a special Thanksgiving puppet
  production.

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Thanksgiving in the Classroom ContinuedI would
make the following recipe the night before and
serve it to the children after lunch. Pumpkin
Pie is a huge family tradition at my family
Thanksgivings and I would like to share it with
the children.Check students food allergies
before serving!

• Traditional Pumpkin Pie
• Ingredients
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 TB unbleached flour
• 1 TB molasses
• 11/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups pumpkin, canned or freshly cooked
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 3/4 cup half half
• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
• Method
• Mix sugars, flour, molasses, cinnamon, ginger,
  nutmeg, salt and pumpkin. Separately, mix eggs
  and half half. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour
  filling into unbaked pie shell and bake at 375F
  for 35 to 40 minutes.

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Why do we Celebrate Cinco De Mayo

• The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May,
  commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia
  over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in
  1862. It is primarily a regional holiday
  celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of
  Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with
  some recognition in other parts of the Mexico,
  and especially in U.S. cities with a significant
  Mexican population. It is not, as many people
  think, Mexico's Independence Day, which is
  actually September 16.
• Celebrating Cinco de Mayo has become increasingly
  popular along the U.S.-Mexico border and in parts
  of the U.S. that have a high population of people
  with a Mexican heritage. In these areas the
  holiday is a celebration of Mexican culture, of
  food, music, beverage and customs unique to
  Mexico.

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How to Celebrate Cinco De Mayo in the ClassroomI
would make corn tortillas with the students!

• Corn Tortillas1 cup corn meal1 Tbsp. baking
  powder3/4 cup water1/2 tsp. salt (or to
  taste)2 tsp. corn oilIn mixing bowl, combine
  corn meal, baking powder, and salt. Boil water.
  Mix boiling water and oil into corn meal. When
  mixture cools enough to handle, divide into eight
  equal balls. Flatten slightly. Place flattened
  ball on top of an 8-inch square of waxed paper.
  Cover with a second square. Roll into 6" circle.
  Remove from paper. Cook on ungreased griddle
  until lightly brown.

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Cinco De Mayo Continued We are going to make
Maracas

• Before distributing cups to students, cut a
  1/2-3/4" gash in the bottom center of each cup.
  (Length of cut depends on width of popsicle
  sticks purchased. Gash should be about 1/8"
  longer than stick is wide.) Insert popsicle stick
  into opening of each cup until about 1/4" of
  stick is visible inside cup, and hot glue stick
  securely in place. Be sure to use a LOW TEMP glue
  gun. At higher temperatures, glue will melt the
  plastic cups. You may wish to glue the stick both
  inside and outside cup the cup for added
  strength. Allow glue to cool completely before
  distributing cups to students.With students,
  pour about 2 Tbsp. dried beans into a yogurt cup,
  replace lid, and tape shut. Cut a strip of paper
  about one-half inch wider than the cup's
  circumference at its widest point and about six
  inches longer than the cup's height. Wrap paper
  around cup, leaving three inches of extra paper
  at both the top and bottom of cup. Tape paper in
  place. Use red and green ribbon to gather paper
  around top and bottom of cup and tie closed.
   Popsicle stick handle should protude several
  inches from the paper covering around the bottom
  of the cup.
• Let the FUN begin!!!

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There are many more Holidays that a teacher can
teach. We tried to pick the Holidays that the
students could learn some history and heritage
while having fun!!