Groundhog Day is February 2. An old name for February 2nd is “Candlemas.” An Old Scots saying holds that, “If Candlemas is bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.” Europeans had various animals (bears, badgers, hedgehogs…) looking out of their dens or burrows on Candlemas to see… Continue reading
Snow is a terrific classroom theme, but you can step it up and study with snowmen, too. Enjoy some snowman books: The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll The Snowman by Raymond Briggs; the wordless DVD has wonderful music and animation. A Snowman Named Just Bob isn’t great poetry,… Continue reading
Study animals in winter for a satisfying science lesson. Continue reading
Germany is the home of Christmas trees and gingerbread, two aspects of the German celebration that have become well entrenched in American tradition. Click on the links to find plenty of classroom activities for both those topics. Don’t stop there! German Christmas traditions involve lots of handmade decorations. One that… Continue reading
English The Wild Christmas Reindeer is a fun book for elementary students. The setting is Finland, and the illustrations are in part inspired by the Sami, who rely on reindeer for many of their basic necessities. Olive, the Other Reindeer is fun for a read-aloud. Check out our Olive, the… Continue reading
Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve? is a beautiful book by Jan Brett, one of our favorite children’s book authors. In this story, naughty trolls threaten a Norwegian Christmas dinner till a passerby with a pet polar bear scares them off. Resources: Jan Brett’s resource pages tell about the research… Continue reading
Michael Rosen’s Chanukah Lights Everywhere is a sweet book, and very good for the classroom. It follows a young boy through preparations and celebration of Chanukah with his family. The book doesn’t ignore the religious nature of the celebration, but is certainly suitable for public schools. The structure of… Continue reading
We don’t mourn the days when teachers handed out candy as bribes or rewards. Still, there are some times of year when it makes sense to have candy around, and it can always be an interesting subject of study. We suggest beginning with a book. Depending on the age… Continue reading
Most of the kinds of mammals in the world are bats — they’re actually the largest group of species in the world, with 1,000 different species living on all the continents except Antarctica. We’re lucky we have them, too, since they eat insects. Online resources: Bats: Creatures of the… Continue reading
If you have a pumpkin, you can have a quick, seasonal lesson. And, really, at this time of year there’s no reason not to have a pumpkin. Pumpkins are a variety of squash, related to cucumbers. They are natives of North America, but now are grown on all six inhabited continents.… Continue reading
