Holiday Activities

[engteach219]

I am finishing my grammar unit, and then have four days left before their Christmas Vacation. Does anyone have any fun ENGLISH/LITERATURE activities, for 9th grade students to do? I didn't want to start something completely new, but thought if I had some short, fun, small unit, that would be GREAT!! :clap:

[upnorthteacher]

I have my students write their own "12 Days of Christmas" and illustrate. If you have them do it on the computer they are working on tech skills, too.

[Clearly Canadian]

Oooo...I like the 12 days of Christmas idea. Interesting to see what would be on their lists. They could create their own Christmas puzzles to share using puzzlemaker.com or some other program.

[Brit]

do you have computer access? they could design greeting cards and write the little ditties that go inside.

[MissTeach]

When we have our first 'real' snow, I do something similar with Frosty the Snowman. My students write a modern version of the song and draw a more modern Frosty. I play the orginal song for them and read the children's book to them. If we have enough time in my lesson plans, I let them write and illustrate a children's book about Frosty and we go to a neighboring elementary school and read the books to first graders. Of course we take along some hot chocolate and cookies too!

[seastarmath]

How much time do you have for the small unit?
We do a "compare and contrast" REALLY short unit. We read O Henry's gift of the Magi, do a Socratic Seminar on various points of the story--mainly was it wise or foolish of the characters to do what they did. Then we look at a video that has a similar theme--there are LOTS of variation. For sixth grade, we use "Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas" which is a video that stars the muppets. Its about an hour long. Then, we do a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two stories. The kids could then write their OWN variation.
Will you need alternative assignments for students who are not allowed to celebrate holidays in any way, shape or form?