Celebrating the holidays as a family and passing on traditions is an important part of every culture. While your students have likely grown up with traditions of their own, winter is a great time of year to broaden their worldview and explore together the history, traditions, and special meaning behind the various winter holidays celebrated around the world!

The media specialists at the Northwestern Oklahoma State University Media Center put together this colorful informative bulletin board a number of winters ago, but we think it would make a great compliment to a Winter Holidays Around the World unit! A mixture of colorful pictures and facts about the traditions, symbols, and history of each holiday - Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa - this would be a great way to keep track of your students' learning throughout the unit!

Winter Holidays Around the World

• Background: Emerald green bulletin board paper.
• Title: "Winter Holidays Around the World!" or "Winter Celebrations!"
• Border: Complimentary solid color trimmer.
• Decoration: Print pictures of symbols, traditional celebrations, etc. onto white card stock, mount them onto colorful construction paper, and arrange them on the bulletin board. As you learn new things, invite your students to take turns scripting facts onto index cards, adding colorful illustrations, and including them under the proper heading on the bulletin board.