Thematic Units - Integrate Reading and Social Studies

Integrate Reading and Social Studies

I teach second grade and am doing a great unit on Holidays Around the World. What I am doing is coordinating my Reading and Social Studies lessons. For example, One day I will read the story of "the Legend of Old Befana" for my reading lesson. I will have the children do an activity and maybe some comprehension questions. Then in Social Studies that same day, we will study Christmas in Italy. Not all my lessons match, but here are the ones that do.

Mexico - The Legend of the Pointsettia
U.S. An Amish Christmas, Christmas in the Big Woods, The Night Before Christmas, and any story about Santa
Israel - Hannukah, Arielle's Hannukah Surprise
Germany - any story about a Christmas tree.
Russia - (Ukraine) The Wild Christmas Reindeer , The Mitten

I have coloring pages of children of each country. . Also activity pages are available for the Wild Christmas Reindeer.
Oh, I forgot, for France I already did Madeline's Christmas. I bought the activity book for $8.00 in Books -A Million that has about 7 or 8 activity pages plus the story.
My kids loved it. We did it this week and made a Madeline's Christmas Book and put all our papers in it to take home.

For the Hoidays Around the World Unit they will make a book cover out of construction paper and add all their papers to it. At the end of the unit I will staple it all together and send it home. It is a great thing for them to keep.
Submitted by: Maureen TEACHK1510@email-removed