Customs related to love, courtship, weddings, and marriage vary significantly from one culture to another and throughout history. Consider this theme as a way to approach standards in social studies. Young children enjoy dramatic play involving weddings. Add a to your dramatic play area, or an assortment of wedding veils… Continue reading
Valentine’s Day is a great classroom holiday; it might have started as a religious observance of St. Valentine’s Day, but by now it really has no religious connotations and no controversies surrounding it that are relevant to the classroom. It is one of the best holidays for school observation,… Continue reading
Presidents’ Day falls midway between the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington, but we like to take the day to study all the presidents of our nation. If you prefer to focus on Washington and Lincoln, these ideas will still work for your classroom. First, get clear on what exactly… 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
Christmas is celebrated in many parts of the world, and the traditions for celebrating it vary from one country and region to another. This makes it a great way to study geography, and we also have ideas for art, math, English, and science under specific countries. Basic plans: Map it! Travel… Continue reading
Is Christmas actually celebrated at the North Pole? We think so. Examining this question lets you look at both actual and fictional geography. The North Pole is not on land, actually, but on ice in international waters. The countries nearby include Canada, the United States (Alaska, specifically), Russia, Greenland, Iceland,… Continue reading
As a Google Earth Pangaean, I had the opportunity to try out Google Earth 6 early. Now you can have it too! Go to Google Earth and download the new version. The view is better, the trees are quite realistic, and you can really feel that you are visiting… Continue reading
Early American children had few store-bought toys. Usually, their toys were made at home from things that would otherwise have been discarded. Two excellent examples of this: apple head dolls and cornhusk dolls. To make an apple head doll, peel an apple. Decide where you will make the face. Having… Continue reading
Native Americans in the Plains cultural group used a leather pouch called a “parfleche” to carry things. If you’re doing lessons on Native Americans generally, explain that the parfleche was used by some Native Americans, but not all. Generally, this was a great solution for Plains tribes, since it was… Continue reading
