Christmas Around the World

About this resource

Learn how Christmas is celebrated around the world with reading, comparing and sorting. This is a complete kit for one topic, built for the table where children need different amounts of support. It starts with a fact chart of six countries, each with its own picture: in Mexico many families have posadas, parties in the nine nights before Christmas, and break a piñata; in Germany many families open one small door on a countdown calendar each day and visit Christmas markets; in Sweden many families put out a Yule goat made of straw; in Australia Christmas comes in summer, so many families eat outside or go to the beach; in the Philippines families hang a parol, a star-shaped lantern, in a window; in Iceland many families give books on Christmas Eve. Children then match countries to pictures, use a clue to name the country, read three short passages and circle the right answer, fill in the word, compare two countries, write about a tradition in their own family, draw, and cut and paste onto sort mats. It comes with a tracker, a class grid and a family update, so nothing has to be written from scratch.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (30 pages)

• 15 student pages in 9 page types: Fact Chart, Match the Country, Which Country?, Read and Answer, Fill It In, Compare Two Countries, My Family Traditions, Draw It, and Cut and Paste
• 57 scored items on 11 pages, every answer read from the data behind the page, never typed by hand
• 3 short reading passages (Posadas and Parols, Calendars and Goats, Summer and Books) with 3 questions each
• 6 countries on the chart, each with its own picture
• 2 compare pages (one with Australia and Germany given, one where the child picks any two) and 1 My Family Traditions writing page with handwriting lines and a drawing box
• 24 cut-and-paste pieces on 3 sort mats (8 pictures, 8 short sentences, 8 full sentences), each into two labeled boxes
• 2 answer keys, generated from the same data as the student pages
• 1 tracker (page, page type, items right, date) and 1 whole-class progress grid
• 1 team note (a hand-off page between team meetings) and 1 home page
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (16 observable-language starters), 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

The Page Types, Easiest First

1. Fact Chart (1 dot): six country cards with a picture and one or two plain facts each, six words to know, and two lines for the child to write what "custom" and "parol" mean.

2. Match the Country, 1 page (1 dot): a country name and four pictures. Circle the matching picture and write its number.

3. Which Country?, 1 page (2 dots): a clue such as "Families put out a goat made of straw" and four country names. Circle the country and write its number.

4. Read and Answer, 3 pages (2 or 3 dots): a short passage about two countries and three questions, each with three lettered choices.

5. Fill It In, 2 pages (2 or 3 dots): Set A writes the word for a picture from a box of six; Set B finishes a sentence from a box of eight (three words are not used).

6. Compare Two Countries, 2 pages (2 or 3 dots): "Only here", "Both" and "Only there" boxes with writing lines, then two sentences to finish ("They are alike because", "They are different because"). Page A gives Australia and Germany; page B lets the child pick any two.

7. My Family Traditions, 1 page (3 dots): four sentence starters on handwriting lines and a big box to draw in. It takes any holiday or any special day, so every family can answer.

8. Draw It, 1 page (3 dots): read a sentence and draw the picture, in four big boxes.

9. Cut and Paste, 3 pages (1, 2 or 3 dots): a big two-box sort mat and a block of 8 pieces that touch edge to edge, so cutting is a few straight lines. Paste 1 sorts pictures into Food and Things; Paste 2 sorts short sentences into True and Not true; Paste 3 sorts full sentences into Australia and Germany.

Informational, Not Devotional

The facts are customs a reference book would give. They are written as what many families do, because families celebrate in many ways, and not every family celebrates Christmas. There is no devotional text, no story told as belief, and no date for Christmas itself. The pictures are our own drawings: a piñata, a countdown calendar, a straw goat, a beach, a parol, a stack of books, a tamale, a gingerbread cookie and a pavlova.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction, large rounded type, big answer boxes, and dots (not words or colors) to show which level a page is. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. The writing lines have a top line, a dashed middle and a base line, and the drawing boxes are about two inches tall so there is room to work. The file prints clean in black and white.

No Guessing The Answer

Wherever a child picks among printed spots (which picture matches, which country the clue names, which lettered choice is right, the order of the pieces on the cut strip), the position of the right answer is checked so it does not sit in the same spot three times in a row. Every clue and every fill-in sentence fits one answer on the Fact Chart.

Type In, Or Print

The name line and every answer box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The same goes for the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the home page. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Primary and upper-elementary classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher adding a short, factual look at customs in other countries to a center, a small group or a morning work folder in December. The reading is written at about a grade 2-4 level, and the teacher can read each passage aloud.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A set of informational reading, vocabulary and writing worksheets about Christmas customs in six countries, with the record-keeping around it. It is not a religious lesson, a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file.