It’s the most wonderful time of the year… isn’t it? Your students are bouncing off the walls excited, and you are counting down the days until winter break so you can spend time with your family. I get it 🙂
Today I wanted to share with you a few of my *favorite* Christmas read-alouds, along with some suggestions on how you can tie in some of your academic standards with them!
Pig the Elf is a *seriously funny* story that will have your students giggling. Pig the Elf LOVES Christmas, and has very high expectations for what Santa will bring him. On Christmas Eve, when his friend Trevor goes to sleep as he should, Pig decided to wait up for Santa. Pig has a strong reaction when Santa doesn’t bring him enough presents, and he gets what is coming to him.
Academic ideas: Compare and contrast Trevor and Pig. Retell the story with beginning, middle, and end. Discuss character traits of Pig and Trevor. Cause and effect of Pig’s behavior.
Bruce is NOT a fan of Christmas, but he reluctantly agrees to celebrate with his family. Suddenly, he finds himself being mistaken for SANTA! As soon as word got around that SANTA was here, all of the animals in the forest were lining up to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Bruce was not happy. Somehow his family convinced him to be Santa Bruce for just ONE night, and he delivered the Christmas spirit to all of the animals! Bruce is still grumpy, but he realizes that maybe Christmas isn’t THAT bad after all.
Academic Ideas: Talk about how Bruce changes from the beginning of the story to the end of the story (character development). Discuss the character traits of Bruce.
This silly story is about a brother and sister who, on Christmas Eve, come up with all kinds of ways to catch Santa when he visits! Even though Santa doesn’t come unless you’re asleep, they still want to try and catch him. When it doesn’t work, they look forward to trying again next year!
Academic Ideas: Writing how-to stories of their own about how they would catch Santa. Visualizing (Don’t show them the pictures as you read, and have them draw what they are picturing in their minds!).
What others would you add to this list? I’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment below!
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