A Southern Christmas Tour
Objective: To examine and see traditions used during the Victorian period during the Christmas season as well as learn the origins and meanings of some popular Christmas carols.
Pre Activity
Activity 1
Suggested Reading
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, written by Clement Moore
We Were Marching on Christmas Day, written by Kevin Rawlings
Connect to website www.users.sccoast.net/tecteach/carol/index.html Print out Christmas Carol Game– Have children work in groups to complete the Christmas carol game. The group who gets the most answered wins a prize.
Activity 3
Learn at least two Christmas carols and go caroling to another grade level classroom.
Post Activity
Activity 1
Have students write their own modern Christmas carol or poem using the music from a popular Christmas carol, i.e.: Jingle Bells. Have students present to the class. Discuss how we learn a great deal about the society that we live in by the words in songs and relate to the words or images they describe in their poem or carol.
Activity 2
Make more of the poppers that the students learned how to make at the Sam Davis Home. Take gifts to a local nursing home and sing carols to the residents of the nursing home.
Activity 3
Print out (Manipulative 2), Santa Claus paper dolls. Have children color and cut out a paper doll to play with and use a decoration for the holiday season.
Activity 4
Who came up with the idea of the Christmas tree? Where did Santa Claus come from? Christmas, today, is a celebration involving celebration symbols that were adopted over time. Have the students identify where these items came from and why we still use them today:
Christmas Tree Mistle Toe
Stockings Gifts
Santa Claus
Fruit Cake