What's My Holiday?
Celebrating Our Differences, Exploring Our Similarities
by Kris Vassos
Guiding Questions
Objectives
Materials / Resources
Language Translation sites
Engaging and Effective Activities
Guiding Questions
- • How are people around the world alike?
• How are people around the world different?
• What holidays do people around the world observe?
Objectives
- • Students will explore holidays around the world through understanding what events they and their families observe.
• Students will discover what type of holidays they have in common with countries around the world.
Materials / Resources
- • Pages Holiday Checklist
• Pages Holiday Chart
• Digital camera
• Scanner
• Computer
- • Internet access
- • Facetime [http://www.apple.com/macosx/apps/#facetime]
• iLife [http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/]
• iWork [http://www.apple.com/iwork]
• Safari [http://www.apple.com/macosx/apps/#safari]
Language Translation sites
- • Altavista [http://world.altavista.com/]
• Babblefish [http://www.babblefish.com/babblefish/freetranslation.htm]
• World Lingo [http://www.worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html]
Engaging and Effective Activities
- 1. Discuss the concept of a holiday.
- • What is a holiday? Give examples.
• Why do people observe holidays?
• What does the word "observe" mean when used this way?
• Do people around the world observe the same holidays? Why or why not?
• Do people around the world observe similar types of national holidays? Why or why not?
2. Hand out the U.S. Holiday checklist and have students place checkmarks next to the events their family observes. Inform students that they are to take the checklist home and ask their parents to check off and enter any additional holidays their family may observe.
3. Create a list of the holidays on large chart paper. Prior to the next lesson have students place a tally mark next to the events that their family celebrates.
4. Have students start up their computers. Project your computer on a large screen. Open the Pages Holiday Chart. Ask students to give you the final tally for each holiday. Type the number for each holiday in the Pages Chart Editor. Students will be able to observe the chart as it is being created.
5. After all the information has been added, ask the students the following questions:
- • Which holidays do most of the students observe?
• Which holidays do the least number of students observe?
• What types of holidays might different countries also observe?
• How might the class research that information?
6. Have students open iCal and choose Calendar > Find Shared Calendars. This will open Safari and take students to the Apple iCal shared library site. Under the Holidays heading, click the “more…” link to see the list of the calendars for different countries. First have students select “U.S. Holidays” from the list.
7. A window will open in iCal with a link to the U.S. iCal calendar subscription. Click the Subscribe button. Use the iCal suggested name for the calendar and click OK. The U.S. holidays will be added to iCal.
8. Have students click the Safari icon in the Dock to bring that window to the front. Assign each student a different country.
9. Point out that the U.S. calendar and that of the other country each use different colors in the calendar. Have students go through the months to get an idea of which holidays are the same and which are different.
10. After 5-10 minutes have students discuss the similarities and differences in the different holidays.
11. If time permits, allow students to download additional calendars from different countries. Once again, examine the calendar for similarities and differences.
12. Discuss:
- • What specific holidays do many of the countries observe?
• What similar holidays do different countries celebrate? (an Independence Day, Thanksgiving, or harvest day, etc.)
• What types of holidays might be unique to a specific country?
• If students wanted to learn more about a specific holiday, how could they find out more information?
13. The next step will be to enter their family holidays into iCal if they are not already listed.
14. In iCal, click the plus sign to add a new calendar. Title the calendar “______ Family Holidays,” inserting the student’s last name in the blank space. If the Info pane is not open, have students choose View > Show Info.
15. Starting with the first month of school for the following year, students will create a new entry on the correct day for each event. Students should place a check in the “all-day” box in the info pane.
16. Since some of the holiday calendars are in the language of that country, use web-based translation programs to translate from one language to another.
17. This activity can conclude at this point, or can be an ongoing activity throughout the year. As a country’s holiday approaches, students can research the type and location of each holiday. Students can use Google Earth or Google Maps to observe an aerial view of the country. Information about the holiday can be entered in the iCal info pane as well as a URL to any sites such as Google Maps.
18. As closure and assessment, revisit the questions asked at the beginning of the lesson:
- • What is a holiday? Can you give examples?
• Why do people observe holidays?
• What does “observe” mean in this context?
• Do people around the world observe the same holidays? Why or why not?
• Do people around the world observe similar types of holidays? Why or why not?
Assessment
- • Response to the pre and post lesson questions
• Teacher observation
• Calendar
Extension / Enrichment Activities
- • Throughout the school year, take class photographs of students observing holidays. In iPhoto, create a Holidays album with all the photos taken during the year. Each student can create a Holidays calendar, importing their iCal dates and using the class photos. Additionally, iPhoto calendars can be created that list holidays in a country’s native language. Prepare it for the following school year and students and their families will have a reminder of what they learned about holidays.
• Create an iPhoto book with the class photos and descriptions about each of the holidays.
• Create a monthly GarageBand podcast detailing upcoming holidays.
• Use the conversation area below to add information about your holidays.
Differentiation Strategies
- • Students can be paired to assist one another.
• Universal Access can be used to help students who need assistive technologies.
• Within iCal, highlight words, hold down the Control key, click the highlighted words, and use the Start Speaking command to have the words read to the student.
Connections
- • Student to Family Connection - students learn more about their family’s observance of holidays
• Family to School Connection - teachers learn more about their student and their family
• Student to Country - students learn more about their country’s holidays
• Student to World Connection - student learns more about other countries' holidays