Thursday, December 1, 2011

Teaching with the holidays in mind.

It's December 1 and around our part of the world it's getting colder, days are getting shorter and we're in the middle of the holiday season. Our second grader and kindergartner are both preparing for the visit of Santa and are still finding ways to not express being burned out on turkey leftovers. Believe me by now there have been many a lesson in cooking with left over turkey, and bones have been stored in the freezer to make a broth with on a cold day. Opportunities exist everywhere to teach math, delving into percentages when you pull out the digital scale to measure what you cook with.

Now is also a great time to learn about winter holidays and how they are observed around the world. A quick trip to the library will reveal many books on holidays and can lead to some creative reports about what your students have found.

If they are young children – art projects with pictures and cut outs can suffice for materials that will explain what they have discovered. If older students, don't limit them to reporting in written format, but encourage speeches, plays, songs – all these will help in retention of what has been learned and make the time pass a little more rapidly for you too!

Get creative and let us know what you've found...

Oh – and Happy Holidays wherever you are!!