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Welcome to December! Another holiday season is upon us. The staff of Vital Knowledge would like to extend our best wishes for a joyous holiday season. The focus of this month's newsletter will be to identify resources for celebrating this special time of year with your students. So welcome aboard! Join us as we explore the many resources the World Wide Web offers to help celebrate the holidays of Christmas and Chanukah and the wonderful work students are completing to mark these days. In addition to this newsletter, keep checking Vital Picks. We have been highlighting resources teachers will find useful for the classroom. In particular our Vital Picks have recently focused on support resources for teachers and parents to help deal with the senseless attack against citizens from around the world and, especially, from the United States of America. We would like to resume highlighting accomplishments of teachers and urge you to nominate teachers for our Vital Award. This month we also have a special gift awaiting you and your students in the Activity section of Teacher's Corner. Check it out, and if you have activities that you would like to share with other teachers, please send them along. We'll make sure to post them immediately and to give you credit. Send your ideas to teachers_corner@vitalknowledge.com "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished."
For the full text of Virginia's letter and the reply from Francis Church visit Kid's Domain. |
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With the many resources and tools information technology offers, students from around the world are able to celebrate with each other and embark on collaborative Christmas activities. We decided to highlight just a few of these efforts: Mrs. McGowan's first grade class in Spring Lake New Jersey has posted their Favorite Christmas Traditions on their classroom Web page. You'll also be impressed with their collaborative Internet Projects. The International School in Denmark creates a Christmas Calendar each year with contributions from students from around the world. A new page for each month in December explains how Christmas and other winter holidays are celebrated in different countries and cultures. Santa Clause.com offers you and your students an opportunity to Email Santa for Christmas! There is even a Web site called Email Santa Claus! And Virtual Christmas also provides you with an opportunity to email Santa. Grade two students at West Elementary School in Southern Indiana have created a Mrs. Claus Workshop. Their site contains a wide variety of Christmas fun and even allows children from all over the world to email a letter to Mrs. Claus! Students of Bowie High School in El Paso, Texas, have a Christmas Postcard Project. The Viking Network in Ireland had a Christmas project in 2000 where schools from around the world emailed selections of their Christmas customs. |
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The Gold Slippers It was only four days before Christmas. The spirit of the season hadn't yet caught up with me, even though cars packed the parking lot of our local discount store. Inside the store, it was worse. Shopping carts and last minute shoppers jammed the aisles. Why did I come today? I wondered. My feet ached almost as much as my head. My list contained names of several people who claimed they wanted nothing but I knew their feelings would be hurt if I didn't buy them anything. Buying for someone who had everything and deploring the high cost of items, I considered gift buying anything but fun. Hurriedly, I filled my shopping cart with last minute items and proceeded to the long checkout lines. I picked the shortest but it looked as if it would mean at least a 20 minute wait. In front of me were two small children - a boy of about 5 and a younger girl. The boy wore a ragged coat. Enormously large, tattered tennis shoes jutted far out in front of his much too short jeans. He clutched several crumpled dollar bills in his grimy hands. The girl's clothing resembled her brother's. Her head was a matted mass of curly hair. Reminders of an evening meal showed on her small face. She carried a beautiful pair of shiny, gold house slippers. As the Christmas music sounded in the store's stereo system, the girl hummed along, off key but happily. When we finally approached the checkout register, the girl carefully placed the shoes on the counter. She treated them as though they were a treasure. With that statement, a soft sob broke from the little girl. "But Jesus would have loved these shoes, " she cried. "Well, we'll go home and work some more. Don't cry. We'll come back," he said. Quickly I handed $3.00 to the cashier. These children had waited in line for a long time. And, after all, it was Christmas. Suddenly a pair of arms came around me and a small voice said, "Thank you lady." "What did you mean when you said Jesus would like the shoes?" I asked. The boy answered, "Our mommy is sick and going to heaven. Daddy said she might go before Christmas to be with Jesus." The girl spoke, "My Sunday school teacher said the streets in heaven are shiny gold, just like these shoes. Won't mommy be beautiful walking on those streets to match these shoes?" My eyes flooded as I looked into her tear streaked face. "Yes" I answered, "I am sure she will." Silently I thanked God for using these children to remind me of the true spirit of giving." - Anonymous |
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The month of December is certainly a special month for those of the Christian and Jewish faiths. The World Wide Web has a multitude of sites containing resources for celebrating Christmas and Chanukah with your students. We have identified just a few of these that you and your students may enjoy visiting: For over 40 years, NORAD has contributed to the magic of Christmas by tracking Santa through his annual journey. Encourage your students to visit their site as part of their family's Christmas Eve celebrations. Check out the multi award-winning Santa's Official Web site for loads of Christmas fun! Whatever you need to help celebrate the Christmas season can likely be found at this site. Stories, songs, letters to Santa, coloring, recipes, Christmas in 70 languages, an interactive toyshop, videos, voice messages from children around the world, and much, much, more! This site is one of the most comprehensive Christmas sites on the web. Visit Chanukah on the Web to find resources for celebrating the Jewish Festival of Lights. Read the story of Chanukah, light candles on a virtual menorah, and spin the dreidel. Find resources such as music, coloring, gift ideas, recipes, greeting cards, and more! Join a mailing list, or send holiday greetings at this award winning web site. All About Christmas for Kids and Teachers contains lots of resources and great links for the classroom. Find stories and traditions about Christmas celebrations around the world. You'll also find clip art and graphics, lesson plans, coloring, worksheets, poems, games songs, crafts, and more! Visit Christmas.com to learn how Christmas is celebrated around the world by looking at symbols, recipes and greetings in various languages. Find holiday entertainment such as songs, online games, coloring books, and Santa's CyberSleigh. Get into the Christmas spirit with party tips, recipes, decorations, gift suggestions, greeting cards, and more! Visit Ohr Somayach Chanukah to view Menorahs from around the world, find examples of miracles, laws and rituals, get deeper insights into the philosophy of Chanukah, entertain your students with songs, games, poetry, and more in preparation for the Jewish celebration of Chanukah. Check out Santa's Village for more Christmas fun! This graphically rich site contains plenty of resources. Check out Mrs. Claus' kitchen, the interactive toy workshop, or Santa's stories and songs. Watch some of Santa's cartoons, learn about his reindeer in the Reindeer Barn, or go to Elf School for lots of educational resources. Claus.com is definitely one of the best Christmas sites on the web! More resources for the celebration of Chanukah can be found at Aish HaTorah. Find basic information about Chanukah, true stories and historical articles. Light an animated Menorah, send electronic greeting cards, find that special recipe, plan parties and more! Pro Teacher: Seasonal Holiday Lesson Plans contains links to great Christmas and Chanukah resources specifically for the classroom. If you haven't yet found what you are looking for don't despair. If it can be found on the web, you can most likely link to it from this site. Find lesson plans, games, stories, poems, coloring, greeting cards, crafts, activities, and more! Pro Teacher has a wide variety of resources for all grade levels and all subject areas for any time of year. Plan ahead and be ready for the holiday season. It's worth a visit to these sites to find resources to use with your students as we prepare for this special time of year! |
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The magic of Harry Potter has captured the imagination of children all over the world. Teachers are quick to appreciate the love of reading J.K. Rowling has instilled in young people and are implementing Harry Potter activities into their classroom teaching. We thought you might appreciate some sites you can visit for ideas on implementing this loveable character into your daily curriculum: Mrs. Lambert, a fifth grade teacher with Calico Rock Public Schools, has put together activities for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. So has the Maine Association of School Libraries. You'll find lots of good ideas and suggestions for activities for all Harry Potter books at Harry Potter Teaching Resources. Connecting Students also has a wide variety of resources for implementing Harry Potter into your curriculum. Are you wondering about the controversy involving the appropriateness of using Harry Potter in the classroom? Check out this article from Education World. Teacher Vision offers a number of links to Harry Potter sites where you can find resources for the classroom. Finally, you and your students may enjoy a visit to the official and many official Harry Potter sites. Visit the Warner Bros. Harry Potter site, the Harry Potter Fan Club, the Harry Potter Galleries, the Harry Potter Page, or the Harry Potter Times. |
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During this special holiday season it is, perhaps, only fitting that our thoughts turn to members of our armed forces who are serving their countries overseas during these turbulent times in world relations. Many of these men and women are unable to be home for the holiday season and you and your students may wish to let them know our thoughts and prayers are with them. Take some time to visit some of the following sites to find how you can support members of our armed forces: The American Family Association is sponsoring a "Dear American Soldier" letter writing campaign. You can send a letter online or through traditional mail and it will be delivered to members of the American Armed Forces. SOS offers a number of ideas and online opportunities for letting American soldiers know they have your support. You and your students may be interested in supporting the American military through Operation "Adopt a Soldier". You and your students may also be interested in joining the Candles Across America campaign in support of NATO soldiers. Canadians may want to send appreciation to our peacekeepers. Why not visit the Canadian Peacekeepers Home Page? Have your students sign their guest book in appreciation of their efforts to promote world peace. |
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Q. Where does Frosty the Snowman keep his money? Q. What is Santa's favorite breakfast cereal? Q. Why is Santa a good racecar driver? Q. Why does Santa Claus have three gardens? Billy: How come you never hear anything about the tenth reindeer, Olive? From: The Holiday Spot |
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