Teaching about other customs and traditions around the world is always fun to do at Christmas time. My students always enjoy learning how other countries celebrate Christmas and comparing and contrasting their own traditions with others around the world. Since we are virtual learning through the month of December, I wanted to be able to put our learning into a digital format that we could use during our Google Meet times.
This would also be perfect for in-class learning, and I definitely plan on using it next year when *hopefully* things are back to “normal.”
My students will be introduced to Luca who will take them around the world to 9 different countries as they learn a little bit about the customs and traditions in that country. They will visit Canada, Mexico, Australia, Germany, United States, Italy, Russia, France, and England. The entire presentation is saved in PowerPoint, but can easily be imported into Google Slides.
I also included printables where students can record their learning if they are in-person.
Click on the picture below to read more about this Digital Christmas Around the World packet.
We will be performing our 
To gear the lesson towards 1st graders, I have them actually measure their strips and cut them appropriately. I cut out 8×1 inch strips from a packet of scrapbook paper. Then, the students each picked 5 strips. They glued the first 8 inch strip on the bottom, cut the second strip into a 7 inch and a 1 inch piece, the third strip into a 6 inch and a 2 inch piece, and so on until they created their tree. Then, we used white paint and Q-tips to make snow. They make a really easy bulletin board display.
The students absolutely LOVED this activity. The first set of students delivered the candy canes to the office staff. When they came back, two of the boys immediately told me how good it made them feel to give something to someone else. Too cute! You can download this editable note 
This past week, we discussed ways that we could spread kindness to others.
