There are lots of ways to integrate the holidays into your classroom. This year, I decided to use “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” by Dr. Seuss, during the last few days before the holidays. Having just completed a unit on stories with morals that included skills such as paraphrasing and writing direct quotations, my intermediate level reading and writing class and I took on this holiday classic. I downloaded the audiobook along with the song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” and we were ready to go! We didn’t do all of the following activities in our class, but here are some ideas to get you started:
– Listen to the first half of the story and create your own ending.
– Retell the story by changing either the main character or the setting.
– Listen to the song and put the lines in the correct order. My class used their knowledge of rhyme and content to complete this!
– Create a character sketch of the Grinch, using the adjectives in the song.
– Identify the “made-up” words. (My class was amazingly good at this!)
– Act out the whole book, or just one scene, letting students create their own dialogue.
– Create a story board or comic strip for the movie.
– Write or tell a different story with the same moral.
I hope you enjoy bringing the holidays into your classroom.
What holiday activities do you use? Share with us in the comments below. We can’t wait to hear your ideas!
