Winter Holidays - Celebrating Diversity

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Related Printable Activity: Decorating the Tree

Woof! Woof!: The focus on this lesson is to teach the value of respect and appreciation of diversity by introducing children to new holiday celebrations, customs, and traditions through reading, language and art.

Teaching with Clifford's Big Idea: Have Respect
When children become aware that our world is made of many unique cultures and traditions, they grow in accepting that diversity is a good thing and something worth celebrating!

Teach: Christmas Around the World!
Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• language and literacy skills
• critical thinking and problem solving skills
• multicultural awareness

Explain to children that people around the world celebrate the Christmas season in many different ways and that it's important to respect the cultural traditions of others. Introduce cultural celebration names: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. Discover what children know about each celebration. Read these books to help bring meaning to each celebration's traditional customs:

• Christmas - Clifford's Christmas by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic) and The First Night by B.G. Hennessy (Viking Press)
• Hanukkah - What is Hanukkah? by Harriet Ziefert (Harper Collins Juvenile Books) and Eight Nights of Hanukkah by Nayer (Troll Communications)
• Kwanzaa - My First Kwanzaa by Deborah M. Newton Chocolate and My First Kwanzaa by Karen Katz (Henry Holt and Company)

After reading, encourage children to express something new that they learned about each celebration.

Practice: Cultural Christmas Wrap!
Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• social and emotional skills
• language and literacy skills
• art appreciation skills
• multicultural awareness

Celebrate diversity by making holiday wrapping paper representing Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. Organize areas for dipping sponges in shallow pans of paint. Provide children with cut out shapes of symbols representing each celebration:

• Christmas: trees, stockings, North Star, Santa Clause, candy cane, reindeer, etc.
• Hanukkah: Menorah, Star of David
• Kwanzaa: Muhindi (ear of corn), Mkeka (straw mat)

Dip and press sponges onto back (usually white) of left over rolls or pieces of wrapping paper, grocery sacks, large squares of fabric, or white paper. Wrap gifts made in the classroom and encourage children to share what they have learned about each culture with family and friends during the holiday season.

Extend: Giving never goes out of season!

• Encourage children to bring canned goods for local food bank
• Invite an older class to read holiday books to your children
• Study maps skills by tracking Santa's anticipated journey around the world... fun!

Clifford’s Library: These books support Clifford's Big Ideas and reinforce valuable early literacy skills:

• Clifford's First Christmas (Clifford the Big Red Dog Series) by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic)
• The Twelve Days of Christmas by Jan Brett (Dodd Mead)
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (Harper Collins Juvenile Books)

Reproducibles:

• Decorating the Tree Printable Activity

Wonderful Wintertime: Lesson plan based on Clifford The Big Red Dog, by Norman Bridwell
Woof! Woof! Encourage children to learn about and understand seasonal concepts through reading, expressive language, and art. This activity gives students opportunities to make choices, express themselves, and grow in self-esteem and knowledge.

Cold-Weather Chapter Books
Stories of winter survival and tales of winters past. Cold-weather themed chapter books for independent readers.

Multicultural Holiday Celebrations
Teach your child about other cultures' holiday traditions. Fun activities for Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Kwanzaa. Also includes Saint Lucia Day, Winter Solstice, and Three Kings Day celebrations.