hist.gK.s.lesson_09
Holidays-We-Share book — celebrating with a buddy class
- Students can name 3+ holidays from the Holidays-We-Share Wall.
- Students can dictate one sentence about a holiday for a class-made book.
Lesson plan
Warm-up
4 minMorning Meeting Sharing — each child shares ONE word about a holiday they have learned about this term (MLK, Lunar New Year, Eid, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or one from home).
- Model first with own holiday
- Affirm all shares — including 'we don't celebrate holidays' (offer 'we have special days like Sunday picnics')
Direct instruction
9 minToday we will become AUTHORS. We will make a book together called Holidays-We-Share. Each of us will make ONE PAGE about a holiday we know — from your family, or from one we learned about this term. We will give the book to our buddy class. First, let's read Book Fiesta! to celebrate books and reading.
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Notice this is another holiday — a holiday about books and children. We can add it to our Holidays Wall.model Highlight: a holiday about CELEBRATING children AND books. Discussion: 'a reading holiday — that's beautiful'prompt Read Book Fiesta! by Pat Mora (April 30 = El Dia de los Ninos / Dia de los Libros)
- What will go on YOUR page?
- Who is the book for?
M-K-S-CUL-09-A
Illustration
Reproduction of Pat Mora / Magaly Morales cover — child-readers of varied skin-tones flying on books like magic carpets through a starry blue sky, butterflies and birds in bright Mexican-folk-art style. Title 'BOOK FIESTA!' in 4-inch joyful red with English/Spanish subtitle.
Guided practice
9 min-
Choose ONE holiday and draw a picture of it on your pagescaffold Picture-cue cards for all 7+ holidays from the wall
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Dictate one sentence to the teacher to write under your picturescaffold Sentence frame: 'Some families celebrate ___ by ___'
M-K-S-CUL-09-B
Manipulative
Physical / non-image
8.5x11 cardstock page with a 6x6-inch drawing area in the upper two-thirds and 3 dictation lines below. Top has a 'My Holiday Page' header and 'By ___' nameline. Bottom has 'Some families celebrate ___ by ___' sentence frame. Available in landscape too.
Formative assessment
2 min- Show me your page. Tell me one thing about your holiday.
Closure
- Assemble pages into a class book
- Plan delivery to buddy class for next week
- Add Dia de los Ninos tile to Holidays Wall
M-K-S-CUL-09-C
Photograph
Color photograph of kindergartners delivering their hand-made book to an older buddy class (1st or 2nd grade). One child holds the book open; both classes seated in a sharing circle. Used to display in the school hallway and on the class blog. Permission slips required for student photos.
Homework
5 min- Tell a family member: 'I made a page for our class Holidays-We-Share book. My page was about ___.'
Exercises in this lesson
Differentiation
- Picture-cue cards on each table for all the holidays
- Pre-printed sentence frame on the page
- Allow collage from holiday-symbol stickers
- Make a TWO-page spread comparing two holidays
- Write the holiday name with invented spelling
- Bilingual sentence frame
- Dictate in home language with English translation written alongside
- Sticker-collage option
- Allow drawing only with adult-dictated caption
- Extended time
Teacher notes
This is a Dimension 4 civic-action moment: communicating conclusions by GIVING the book to a buddy class. Coordinate with the buddy class teacher in advance. Pre-conferral with families about page-making: if a child's family explicitly does not celebrate ANY holiday (some Jehovah's Witness families, some non-religious families), offer the option of 'a special day in my family' (a Sunday picnic, a birthday, the first day of summer) — the goal is participation, not coercion. Dictation step is the bridge to English K-Spring's dictate-one-sentence skill — name the cross-disciplinary link aloud.