Holiday Lesson Ideas

Computers are an interesting conundrum: we either love the technology but don't emphasize the learning or we emphasize the learning but minimize the technology. December is a great month to teach about tradition, religion and cultures because there are 4 major holidays in this one month: Christmas (Christian), Hanukkah (Jewish), Eid-al-Adha & Al-Hijira (Muslim), and Kwanzaa (African-American).

This year my students worked on Christmas cards and making a Christmas list with pictures to help their parents :). After participating in an online discussion it occurred to me that we could have done a web search on different celebrations in December, created a calendar for the next year, in a more tolerant district found music from different traditions, and learned about the traditions of the 4 major holidays. These are simple ways to infuse technology with learning.

Continuing in this vein, we can make up for this oversight by creating a 2009 calendar using the myriad holidays featured in Family Crafts at About.com.

Another thought I just had is the battle between teaching to standards vs. creating educated and involved world citizens, so of course the ultimate is to tie these ideas to your standards so both goals are met!