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Christmas Lesson Plans
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here to see our selection of Christmas Lesson Plans.
 If
you watch the news or read the newspaper, you will already know
the challenges of Christmastime in the classroom. Christmas lesson
plans can be the most difficult lesson plans to make.
First of all, Christmas is highly emphasized in public schools
our country, so when most of us were younger almost all Christmas
lesson plans were acceptable—but what about Chanukah? When
I was going to school, in my area of town there were many private
Catholic and Christian college preparatory schools and institutions.
And the people who lived in that part of town could afford to send
their kids to these private institutions. Therefore, ninety percent
of the children in my public school growing up were Jewish—for
there were no private Jewish schools. So we were very familiar with
the cultural divisions between these two holidays, which happen
to come at the same time of year.
Christmas lesson plans, at that time, however were less difficult.
Holiday crafts were holiday crafts. Some kids made the Star of David
out of cardboard, some did Christmas trees, and some kids drew nativity
scenes—it did not matter.
Currently, the controversy is a little more overbearing, ok let
us face it—it’s completely overwhelming in public schools.
For your Christmas lesson plans you cannot do a nativity scene unless
you are teaching at a private Christian school. For your Christmas
lesson plans you cannot do a Chanukah craft unless you are teaching
at a private Jewish school. But in public schools, some parents
will even get offended if you do a craft of Santa Clause, because
the notion of Santa contradicts the religious elements of Christmas
that they are taught at home.
So what do you do for your Christmas lesson plans? Here
are a couple of ideas:
• Snowflakes
There are lots of Christmas lesson plans that can include crafts
with snowflakes. You can use a lot of glitter! You can cut out your
snowflakes from plain white paper and hang them from the ceiling.
Another Christmas lesson plans idea may be to use white paint on
a black construction paper, to make a snowy scene. Teach the children
how each snowflake is unique, and show them by comparing their snowflakes
to each other.
• Other cultures
You can teach your class the traditions of other cultures during
this time of year in your Christmas lesson plans. Your Christmas
lesson plans can include, for example, the tradition of children
in Germany laying their shoes outside the door to be filled up by
Saint Nick with candies. New, even though this particular Christmas
lesson plan includes Santa Clause, it is a reference to another
culture and traditions unknown to American kids—it is not
an anti-religious Christmas lesson plan by any means.
Discuss teaching ideas, lesson plans, classroom
strategies
and more on our teaching
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