Wow, I can hardly believe that another year has come and
gone and the holiday season is upon us once again. This week I have some holiday websites you can
use as resources to learn about celebrations around the world at this time of
year, in addition to some which add a fun holiday twist to math and reading practice,
as well as entertain.
ABCya.com http://www.abcya.com/
- This website offers word and math games for students in kindergarten through
grade 5; many with a holiday twist. On the
home page you can choose one of the featured games or click on the grade level
in the tree to the right, to be taken to a variety of games at your student’s
ability level. When you visit the grade
level page, you have the opportunity to view the games and activities grouped
into categories such as ‘Letters’, ‘Numbers’, ‘Holiday’ and ‘More’. One feature which stood out to me was in the
Christmas and Hanukkah word search and crossword activity. It asks how you would like to play your
puzzle (computer or printer). By
selecting printer, you will be able to print off a paper copy of the word
search or crossword for your students to use should the internet go down or if
the technology is not available.
This is a fun website which allows you
to choose one of the buildings in Santa’s village and learn about the activities
going on there. The reindeer barn you
can read (or have read to you) holiday stories, the mailroom allows you to
write letters to Santa and view his responses to your messages, and in the kitchen
you can try out some of the recipes from Mrs. Claus’ own cookbook. This is a
really cute website with a wide variety of activites.
This website offers a wonderful variety
of resources on the Kwanzaa celebration – from lesson plans to art activites. Additionally
they have a full page of winter activites (https://www.teachervision.com/winter/teacher-resources/6677.html)
for teachers who prefer not to specifiy a particular holiday and still want to
celebrate the season.
NORAD Tracks Santa (http://www.noradsanta.org - also available
as an app for iPhone and iPad).
The North American Aerospace Defense Command has set up Santa’s sleigh
with a radar system so they are able to track him as he travels around the
world making his deliveries. This is great fun for students to watch as
he travels all the countries of the world and there are even some videos of him
visiting important landmarks. Until he begins his journey, the website
lets you play some games and learn more about Santa.
New Year’s Traditions Around the World (http://www.fathertimes.net/traditions.htm). This website contains brief descriptions of New Year’s
traditions from countries around the world as well as how to say ‘Happy New
Year’ in many different languages. What a great way to remember
that the world is a much larger space that what we interact with on a
day-to-day basis.
These are just a few fun and educational holiday activity websites
available to you. If you find others and
would like to share them, I would be happy to pass them on. Past Tech Tidbits posts can be found on the blog at http://techtidbitz.blogspot.ca and if you have an idea for a
future blog topic, please feel free to pass it along to me.
Cheers,
Stace
as an app for iPhone and
iPad). The North American Aerospace
Defense Command has set up Santa’s sleigh with a radar system so they are able
to track him as he travels around the world making his deliveries. This
is great fun for students to watch as he travels all the countries of the world
and there are even some videos of him visiting important landmarks. Until
he begins his journey, the website lets you watch the Big Countdown, play games
and learn more about Santa. 
