In a Holiday Daze?!

I am certain that from Halloween to Easter I am in a complete daze...it's one holiday after another! While I absolutely love teaching all about the holidays, I do still have to stick to those ol' Common Core standards!
So here's how I get through the holiday daze
Each week beginning in December we learn about the stories behind a few winter holidays. My grade level chose Diwali, Hanukkah, Las Posadas, Three Kings Day, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. These all revolve around the theme of light and all have amazing stories and characters. So there's my Literature and Informational standards!

Note that in the past I did one holiday per day. Different kids means different plans!

I made a powerpoint for each holiday along with an interactive "booklet" if you will. It's more of a note-taking form in my classroom, not a final product, but it is pretty enough to be one! And you can skim the top or go as deep as you want with this file. Every teacher is different, even within my grade level, so I kept that in mind when making this product.
I do this is small groups sitting around a laptop.

so here are the powerpoints and activities that cover ALL the holidays. Each presentation can be projected or printed and bound into a book! And each one follows the same order-who, what, when, why, and where.

here's an example

this is just the booklet which also follows the 5 W's.

and here are the activities that you can use to go deeper into one or more of the holidays.

My absolute favorite activity is The Christmas Story comic strip...oh the responses I have gotten!

and what about the other kids that aren't on a computer? They are working on our 12 Days of a Common Core Christmas centers! If you can love a worksheet-I love these! I think they are so fun! and this year I will add in these Holiday Daze centers for the other holidays too!

So a question I have gotten a time or few is what about kids that do not celebrate Christmas? Are you teaching in a private school? 

Well, holidays are in my Social Studies curriculum! And I bet they are in yours too! 

I hope this has inspired teaching about some of the other holidays in your classroom! It is truly a blast to teach and I learn something new every year!

Happy Thanksgiving Blog Hoppers!