NORAD
Tracks Santa - the official Santa-tracking web site of the
North
American Aerospace Defense Command. Here you can track Santa by radar,
see photos of Santa, and listen to Christmas music by the United
States Air Force bands and the Royal Canadian Artillery Band. Many
interesting facts and links here!
CHRISTMAS PROJECT IDEA
- START YOUR OWN ELF ACADEMY!
Take inspiration from the
Elve Academy at the Lapland
Vocational College in Finland!
People dressed as elves post marking
letters with the stamp from Santa Claus'
Post Office on the Arctic Circle near
Rovaniemi, northern Finland. Customer service,
story-telling, nature studies and
wilderness survival are essential skills
for any elf worthy of the name. Anyone
who aspires to a job as a Santa's helper
can acquire them at a new Elf Academy in Rovaniemi, 2,600 km (1,600 miles) from
the North Pole, which Finland claims as
home to the 'real' Santa Claus. The
Christmas season contributed about
one-third of the region's 2006 tourist
income of 540 million euros (387 million
pounds). Many people arrive on a
day-trip to visit Santa, learn to drive
huskies, taste local delicacies and --
with luck -- glimpse the Northern Lights
above pine trees fat with snow.
December Celebrations - a Multicultural Study
This unit is one that
was actually designed at one of our workshops. Normally
the teams that develop units are from the same school, but this
group was an eclectic team if there ever was one! We had
an elementary teacher, a middle school music teacher, two high
school teachers (teaching philosophy, theology, math and
science), a district curriculum director, and a district
superintendent. They were from Hawaii, Oklahoma, New
Mexico and California. They planned an excellent
interdisciplinary, thematic unit.
Their theme was
"December Celebrations", and they designed a unit in which the
students would examine the four major celebrations of December/Winter/Holidays:
Ramadan, Hanukah, Kwanzaa and Christmas. The students examined and
studied these celebrations through all the disciplines, and
their final product was a stage production which was to be a
fundraiser. It was to be presented at the local Fine Arts
Center, and local businesses were to be involved in the
production, from advertising to final production! It was
an incredible, exciting plan that they planned to actually
implement in their communities. Does this give you any
ideas?
Charles Dickens Dinner Theater
This is a unit that
was planned and implemented with GREAT SUCCESS by the entire
fifth grade team at a school in west Texas. The team
brainstormed the theme of Charles Dickens from every discipline.
After they completed their brainstorming of activities,
resources, etc., they checked their state standards and found
that nearly all of them were already there! They were a
little nervous, since they had not done anything like this
before. They had some concerns that the kids would go
wild, that they would have trouble keeping track of everything,
but it all worked like a charm. The entire community was
thrilled. The kids loved it. Discipline and
motivation problems disappeared completely! It was like a
Christmas miracle.
Your students and
your community would probably greatly enjoy this kind of
project. And you can tie in all the content standards
easily. If you need help, email me!
Curriculum - See our Holiday Themes
page for ideas on
Christmas. Soon we will
be providing resources for Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukah. We
would appreciate your suggestions on web sites to add to this list
of resources!
Each year, the Christmas Price
Index is used in classrooms as an entertaining, simple way to
introduce basic economic concepts. The change in the prices of
Christmas gifts, year over year, provides an excellent lesson on
inflation and other economic trends. Plus, similarities to the
U.S. Consumer Price Index make it a fun and easy way to study
economic indicators.
