Ireland is a gorgeous and fun country to visit. I’ve been lucky enough to visit twice and would love to go back with my kids. In the states, around St. Patrick’s Day, it is normal to see lots of green and pots of gold and shamrocks. It’s also a great time to dive into this fascinating island and it’s rich history and culture. Here is everything you need to do a unit on Ireland with upper elementary schoolers.

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Visit Ireland

So, obviously going to Ireland is the best way to really experience Ireland. However, this isn’t possible in a lot of situations so here are some alternatives.

Attend an Irish Cultural Event

A lot of cities and towns have Irish Cultural Events around the time of St. Patrick’s Day. Parades, Festivals, etc. These will allow you to at least hear Irish music, maybe see some Irish dancing. You might even be able to try out or watch an Irish sport like curling.

Virtual Visit to Ireland

Another option is a virtual visit. My fourth graders loved this 17 minute YouTube visit to Ireland.
Ireland: Travel the World with Your Kids

Read about Ireland

Follow Me Around Ireland
by Wiley Blevins

I have been pleasantly surprised by this series several times. They serve as a good introduction or overview of a country, in this case Ireland. I love that they are from a child’s perspective so they include things like how kids play and what school looks like. FOLLOW ME AROUND IRELAND is a wonderful book for giving some context for all of the playful picture books on this list for St. Patrick’s Day.

Find Online

Celtic Tales: Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Wales
illustrations by Kate Forrester

This is a beautiful book of fairy tales from Celtic heritages. Obviously they aren’t all from Ireland, but when we did our Fourth Grade Unit on Ireland, or when you’re getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day you could just read the tales from Ireland. They are brief, just a few pages, which works well for a daily read aloud or before bed.

Find Online

For More Book Recommendations, check out this booklist on My Storytime Corner

Explore Irish Music

• Irish Music lesson from Music in Our Homeschool
• St. Patty’s Music Theory from My Fun Piano Studio

Art Activities inspired by Ireland

• Make St. Brigid’s Crosses using pipe cleaners from Everything Irish by AnnMarie O’Grady
• Learn to draw a Pot Gold with Art Hub for Kids
• Draw Celtic Knots with Kitchen Table Classroom.

Science & Math Activities

• Pot of Gold Multiplication Game from Hanging with Mrs. Hulsey on Teachers Pay Teachers.
• St. Patrick’s Logic Puzzles freebie from Mrs. Thompsons Treasures
• Bake Irish Soda Bread. Everyone swears by their family recipe for this, but regardless of the recipe you choose – this bread is a staple.
• Play Rainbow Game from Waldock Way
• Make Rainbow Slime from Little Bins for Little Hands

Irish Reading & Writing Activities

• St Patrick’s Day Fact vs. Opinions
• Write Irish Limericks – this was a favorite with my kids.
• Ireland Cursive Pages
• Write Your Name the Celtic Way also from Everything Irish by AnnMarie O’Grady

Learn about Irish Dance

Irish Dance is a unique form of dancing that’s a traditional part of Irish culture still thriving today. If you can’t watch Irish dancers live, here are some YouTube videos of Irish dance:

• RiverDance – you might be able to find a full show at your library as well. This was a world famous touring group of Irish Dancers.
• Trinity Irish Dance Company – this group is currently touring and is a more modern take on Irish dance.
• Leahy Call To Dance – this is a family of musicians that play in a band together. They are not professional dancers, but they dance and I love this song. It’s great fun.
• Cairde – also more modern, but still traditional. This is a group in Ireland.

If you have more time, Netflix has an animated movie full of Irish dance, RIVERDANCE: THE ANIMATED ADVENTURE which is really cute.

End of Unit Irish Program

At the end of our unit, we had an Irish themed program for friends and family. We included:

• Irish Dance
• Irish Songs on Recorder and Piano
• Irish Limericks Read Aloud
• Art Show

More Ideas for Third, Fourth and Fifth Graders

Swimming back and forth in the tank in our schoolroom is Mr. Weasley. He’s a beta fish we recently adopted from some friends who are moving. He’s bright orange which is probably the most exciting thing about him, because honestly he spends most of his day hiding under the bridge in his tank. I’m not a fish person. I’m not really a pet person. None of that matters though, because my kids are animal obsessed and they are now fish obsessed.

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There have been hints at an interest in fish in the past.

There was the season where my son was in a “fishing club” at school that basically consisted a few friends who talked about fish and fished together when they could convince their moms and sisters that this was how we wanted to spend our afternoon. This past year he also earned a fishing merit badge at scouts which included learning about fishing in depth, going deep sea fishing, and learning to cook and clean fish.

Also Read: 10 Tips for Fishing with Kids

There was the snorkeling. Our first time was to see leopard sharks and the following summer we went to La Jolla Cove, a known local snorkeling spot, to see fish swimming in the reef. I’ll admit that it was pretty awesome seeing the bright pops of color under the water.

Also Read: Snorkeling in Oahu with Kids

Now there was Mr. Weasley.

Interests have a way of popping up like this in our lives. There are hints. Here and there an interest. And then they swoop in and pull all of a kid’s (or both’s) focus. They talk, read, watch, and learn obsessively about something. I have to admit it’s actually one of my favorite parts of parenting. The interests are rarely something I expect and they always pull us in interesting directions.

In this case, we swam towards fish and dove hard.

Ideas for Learning about Fish

Our interests have a general pattern to them. My kids (each different in their learning styles) like to explore interests in a few pretty predictable ways. After ten years, we’ve hit a groove (for the most part). I think we got here mostly by me accepting whatever random thing they were interested and then throwing any ideas I could find that felt meaningful around the house and seeing what sparked further exploration. Here are some ways we learned more about fish:

Caring for Our Actual, Live Fish

This was obviously where it started and caring for their little orange fish was a big part of this learning unit. They fed him, learned how to clean his tank, watched his movements obsessively.

Books about Fish

A Place for Fish
by Melissa Stewart
Find Online

How do Fish Breathe Underwater
also by Melissa Stewart
Find Online

Hello Fish: Visiting the Coral Reef
by Sylvia A. Earle
Find Online

Papa’s Mechanical Fish
by Candace Fleming
Find Online

Fishy Watercolors

I have pretty art enthusiastic kids and so art is often part of our learning. In this case, watercolors felt like an appropriate medium for representing fish. We did this a few times.

Materials:

• Mat for under paper or other table covering
• Paper towels
• Watercolors
• Watercolor Paper
• Paint Brushes
• Cups for Water
• Pencils or Black tipped pens
• Pictures of fish or close proximity to a tank of fish (optional)

Invitation:

When we do art it is rarely the “everyone come to the table so we can paint” variety. I like to set up an invitation – a spot for each kid to work and some sort of visual prompt – and let that spark their interest. If they’re interested, then it often stays out for a few days or is set out again multiple days (depending on our currently home size / table situation). In this case I set out our Outdoor School: Animal Watching book and some other fish book near the fish tank with the supplies listed above.

Nighttime Fish Habitat Check

We have been using the Outdoor School series to inspire some of our learning about outside, including animals. (You can read more about how we used Outdoor School books last year in Fourth Grade in this post).

When we started reading about fish in Outdoor School: Animal Watching my kids were super excited to do this Nighttime Fish Habitat Check.

Directions:

• Prep your flashlight in a bag, with rocks if needed.
• Plan where to go. We went to the bay because we snorkeled there recently and saw a couple fish and a stingray. We also found it helpful that where we could go on a bridge to get above the water a little, but we did see some fish wading into the water as well.
• Put on weather appropriate clothes and bring towels (these dock & bay quick dry towels are my favorites)
• Further directions for the habitat check are in the OUTDOOR SCHOOL guide, but it’s pretty straightforward.

More Fish Field Trips

Most of these field trips were repeated multiple times during our unit or period of learning about fish. Come back to the things they enjoy. Repeat things that are interesting. Talk about them and see what new questions they have and then head back.

• Snorkeling in the ocean
• Aquarium Field Trip
• Pet Store
• Coi Fish Pond at the Japanese Friendship Garden

You May Also Like: How to Use an Adventure Journal on Field Trips

More Unit Ideas for Upper Elementary School

In fourth grade every kid in the United States can get a FREE family pass to the National Park system. This seems to be a incredibly well kept secret. I am in no way affiliated with the National Park system, but I adore the incredible diversity and beauty of the parks. We often plan family vacations around parks we want to visit and the idea that you can do this for free for a whole year (or more if you have several children) feels like an incredible gift.

affiliate links may be included in this post.

Our Fourth Grade Park Adventures

Our twins were in Fourth Grade in 2020-2021 school year. This felt like a huge disappointment to me because all of my plans for big National Park road trip adventures were suddenly more complicated. Everything was more complicated in 2020.

I know a lot of people actually did more local travel and more road tripping to National Parks in 2020 because it was an outdoor, reasonably safe alternative to traveling abroad. In our case, my husband works on a US Navy base and was under orders to stay within 300 miles of the base unless he was deployed. Sure, we could have gone off just me and the kids on a longer road trip but I always hesitate to do that since we are already away from him a lot. However, we did have some National Park adventures in Fourth Grade. So, here are the Parks we explored.

Get your FREE Fourth Grade Pass Here

Joshua Tree

Located just a few hours from San Diego, Joshua Tree National Park is a great option for southern California families. If you’re okay with a long day, this can even be done as a day trip. We have day tripped, camped in the park, and stopped as part of longer road trips. We love this unique park.

More about Joshua Tree

Sequoia & Kings Canyon

During fourth grade we took a road trip up to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. We loved both parks. They are absolutely stunning. Kings Canyon was our favorite, so make sure you don’t skip it despite Sequoia being the more well known.

More about Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

You May Also Like:
All About California Unit for Fourth Grade

Cabrillo National Monument

Cabrillo is located in San Diego and one we visited frequently in fourth grade. The lighthouse and display about Spanish explorers is fun to learn about, the park offers incredible views of San Diego and the ocean, and if you’re able to come when the tide is low, the tide pools are some of the best in this part of the country.

Learn More about Cabrillo

How to Make the Most of the National Park with Kids

The National Parks are great for all ages. There are things to marvel at and enjoy no matter what your interests or ages. For the purposes of this post I am going to focus on the things we did to make the most of the National Parks for our fourth graders (9-10 year olds).

Get your FREE Fourth Grade Pass Here

1. Dress for the weather – When you’re packing, make sure to pay attention to what the weather is like in the park. For example, where we stayed near Sequoia was always a good 10+ degrees warmer than up in the park where there was still snow on the ground in some parts in the Spring. The Redwoods National Park had rain off and on while we were there so raincoats were essential. Being warm, cool or dry enough while you’re exploring is essential to happiness.
2. Bring Adventure Supplies – exploring a National Park can feel like the ultimate adventure for kids. There are mountains to climb, streams to cross, great dunes of sand to slide down, unfathomable trees to view. I always bring some variation of these Adventure Supplies when we go on an adventure. Having at least one tool (binoculars, camera, journals) to deepen your explorations and being stocked and prepared for any needs helps to keep everyone happy and engaged.
3. Junior Ranger Program – my kids love the Junior Ranger program at the National Parks. Some parks have better guides for the kids than others, but all of them have taught us something about the wildlife or geography. Often they give us a great guide to what to do in the park, if not the park rangers are a great resource. Before you hit the trails, pick up a Junior Ranger packet for each kid. Some parks, like Joshua Tree, have these at the front gate when you drive in. Other times you have to stop at the Ranger Station.
4. National Parks Activity Books – we keep busy in the car with a variety of audiobooks, games and activity books. On our National Park road trips in fourth grade my kids loved reading this Lonely Planet guide about the different National Parks and doing the activities in this National Geographic Kids Junior Ranger activity book. Depending on the park you’re visiting, there are also some wonderful children’s books about the parks. For example, we read REDWOODS by Jason Chin before our trip to the Redwoods and he also wrote this award winning, absolutely stunning picture book about the GRAND CANYON.
5. Stamp Your National Park Passport – lastly, don’t forget to stamp your passport! My kids both have National Park Passports like these. You can buy them beforehand on Amazon or the Ranger Stations always have some in stock as well.

More National Park Guides

Although we didn’t explore as many parks during fourth grade as I’d hoped, we have visited a lot of national parks with our kids. Here are some more guides to our favorites:

Redwoods National Park (CA)

Death Valley National Park (CA)

Cabrillo National Monument (CA)

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (NM)

Chaco Culture Heritage Park (NM)

Golden Gate National Recreation Area (CA)

Guadalupe Mountains National Park (TX)

Fire Island and the Sunken Forest (NY)

Petrified Forest National Park (AZ)

Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Seashore (MI)

Washington DC Mall Monuments (DC)

White Sands National Park (NM)

ALSO READ:
30+ Unforgettable Trips with Kids

Photography was our first art unit of fifth grade. In a world of watercolors and oil pastels, that might seem like a strange place to start but it leaned into my kids’ natural interest in photography and our heavily science based curriculum.

As with most things, we taught photography in a variety of ways but focused on getting out of the house and practicing their photography skills in the real world. (You can read all about my philosophy on learning and teaching in Little Walks Big Adventures

affiliate links are included in this post.

Photography 101 Essentials

You do not need a lot to teach basic photography. I recommend:

• Cameras ( my kids both have one of these cameras with a waterproof strap to hook on their wrists to limit dropping )
• Photography Journals or some other place to keep and share their photographs. We are using sketchbooks like this to paste their photos into because it will be their art journal for the whole year.
• Computer & Printer – to upload and print photos.

Photography Neighborhood Walk

Our first field trip was a walk around the neighborhood with our cameras.

Before you go:

• Go over basics of how to use your cameras. How to turn them on. How to take a picture. Go over any safety recommendations. For example, I encourage my kids to wear the wrist straps whenever they’re carrying their cameras to avoid lots of dropping.
• Talk about photography. Before we went on our Photo Walk, I had them go online and find a photo that they liked. Just one. It could be a photo of anything that interested them – buildings, flowers, animals. One photo that they found interesting. We printed it out, added it to their photo journals and then shared what they liked about the photo. This led to a conversation about some photography basics. In our case, light and perspective were both discussed. I kept this brief and basic, but we talked about how they photo might have been taken and why they liked the way the subject had been approached.
• When we went on our walk I brought these up again as they were taking photos by saying things like; I wonder how the light would change if you took a photo of that flower from a different angle? or I remember you liked the photo that was taken from a low perspective, have you tried taking a photograph of that tree from that same perspective? or I see you taking a picture of that flower, I wonder how many different interesting ways you could photograph that same flower?

Afterwards:

• We learned how to upload photos onto the computer.
• They reviewed the photos they took and chose a few favorites. Those were printed and then added to their art journals with a sentence about their photo.

Visit an Art Museum

• Visit an art gallery or photography museum.
  The Getty Center in Los Angeles has a building devoted to photography. They also have a lesson plan for middle schoolers about photography. Here in San Diego, Balboa Park has the Museum of Photographic Arts.

We visited the Getty Center which is an amazing free art museum in LA. The architecture and garden is amazing. Make sure to set aside time to explore the garden. That was the part my kids loved best. I also highly recommend the kids scavenger hunts that are available next to the front desk.

There is also a full building devoted to photography which is where we focused our art viewing for this trip.

Ideas to Increase Engagement:

• Check online before you go to see what exhibits are currently showing. Take some time to learn a little more about the artists you’ll be seeing
• Use the info on their website to create a quick scavenger hunt for the photography section of the museum.
• Another option is to have your kids look around and then sketch their favorite photography in their art journal or write about they are inspired to try after viewing the photos.

The Getty
1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90049, USA
Open 10a-5p Closed Mondays
Entrance is FREE but you must pay $20 to park and have a reserved timeslot to enter.
Website

Additional Resources for Learning about Photography with Kids

• Great American Artists for Kids
  We are using this book all year to study different styles of art. It covers a range of art forms and artists throughout American history. Ansel Adams and Sandy Skoglund are the photographers included. Each chapter has a little about the featured artist and then an activity related to that artist’s work for your child to try. Buy Online
• Combine Photography and Poetry with this Best Part of Me photography project.

Read More Photography Tips

Mythology hooked my kids in fourth grade. They dove into gods and goddesses, primarily in Greek culture, but learned about mythology from around the world. Here are some of our adventures and resources as they explored the magical world of mythology.

affiliate links are included below.

Field Trip to the Getty Villa

Getty Villa

While in Los Angeles for a weekend we visited the Getty Villa. This is one of the two Getty Museums in LA. It has Greek and Roman antiquities housed in a re-created Roman country home.

The Getty Villa makes a huge effort to be family friendly. There are a lot of activities for families at the museum. The super cool thing for kids who love mythology is that you can take an immersive audio tour of the museum.

My kids absolutely loved having the characters in their ears as they explored the museum on their own personal quest. Access the audio tour here or ask for more info at the information desk.

Getty Villa
17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, USA
Open 10a – 5p, Closed Tuesdays
FREE to visit, $20 to park.
Must reserve a time slot online beforehand.
Website

Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson was our way into Mythology and I expect we’re not alone. Once my kids had read THE LIGHTENING THIEF, especially my daughter, they were hooked. Suddenly they wanted to know all about all kinds of mythology.

Percy Jackson Inspired Activities

• Make sure you visit the Rick Riordan website. There is a wealth of information including these Teacher Guides.
• There is a Lightening Thief Unit Study on Proverbial Homemaker.
• Fabulous Classroom has a huge list of resources about Percy Jackson learning inspired by the release of Sea of Monsters on DVD but they would work for a general unit as well in most cases.
• Here are some fun ideas if you want to have a Percy Jackson bookclub meeting from Adventures in Mommydom.

Book Recommendations:

There are SO many Percy Jackson books and related books, but in case your voracious mythology fan needs some more ideas here are some more series we’ve enjoyed.

• Hopeless Heroes series by Stella Tarakson
• Zeus the Mighty series by Crispin Boyer
• Thunder Cluck! Chicken of Thor by Paul Tillery and Meg Wittwer
• Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
• Heroes in Training series by Tracey West
• Nico Bravo graphic novel series by Mike Cavallaro
• Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland

Mythology

Once my kids were exposed to mythology via Percy Jackson, they seemed to thirst to learn all they could.

Books to Read

• Usborne Illustrated Stories from the Greek Myths
• Myth Atlas: Maps and Monsters, Heroes and Gods from Twelve Mythological Worlds by Thiago de Moraes
• National Geographic Kids: Everything Mythology by Blake Hoena
• Gods and Heroes: Mythology Around the World by Korwin Briggs

Activities

• Impressive and diverse twelve week mythology study that covers all the curriculum areas on Redhead Mom.

Mythical Creatures

Mythical Creatures are some of the most fascinating parts of mythology, especially for kids who are huge animal fans like mine. If you want to go down this rabbit hole, here are some books and activities to explore.

Books to Read

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J. K. Rowling
• Mythopedia: What A Beast by Sophia Kelly
• Miss Turie’s Magic Creatures by Joy Keller – This is a cute picture book. If you’re diving into Mythology and Mythical Creatures with an early elementary schooler I definitely recommend this one.
• Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland is all about dragons that have to save their magical world. These are also good on audio.

Games to Play

• Createures Drawing Deck: This is game / art activity that is loads of fun if your kids enjoy drawing.
• Runes & Regulations: This is a strategy game that’s funny and also plays with mythical creatures.

Read About More Fourth Grade Units

Elections are always a nature learning opportunity. My twins were in fourth grade during the 2020 presidential election and we really leaned into the excitement and interest in the election as part of our social studies learning.

We voted via drop-off ballot in California. Our ballots arrived in early October so I showed them to my fourth graders and we talked a little about the different parts before I filled it out. Then they walked with me to our local drop off spot to turn it in. In previous years they have always gone with me to vote before school on Election Days.

No matter what year it is and how tense or invested the country feels in the current election cycle, using it as an opportunity to teach kids about government and democracy feels useful.

affiliate links are included below.

Two Weeks Before the Election

• Read DUCK FOR PRESIDENT and do this writing activity from TpT
• Watch the Debates together
• Share any of the flyers you get in the mail with them. Compare and contrast ones you get from different parties. What do they like? What makes sense to them? How do they relate to advertising in other areas of their life?
• My daughter started reading HEIDI HECKELBECK FOR CLASS PRESIDENT by Wanda Coven

One Week Before the Election

• This is a fairly comprehension Elections Unit by Sonlight that covers a lot of information about the election process. The week before the election we did about half of this unit.

Election Week, Day and Night

• Decorated with Red, White, and Blue
• We watched 2 videos on TedEd about Why We Vote on Tuesdays and on the Electoral College.
• My kids really wanted to pretend to vote so we used these Election Day Worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
• Played this Printable Election Math Game from Royal Baloo
• Did this Free Patriotic Music Lesson from Music in our Homeschool.
• Used this Electoral College Map with a math activity you can do beforehand to see how different states can be combined to get the total number of votes needed. This also includes some geography as you find states on the USA map.
• Electoral College Map to track the race as votes come in. If you’re teaching in a classroom you could send this home with the kids or fill it out together the next day when they return to class.

Also Check Out:
Unit Ideas for
Third, Fourth & Fifth Grade

Energy is a fun, rich topic to explore in Science with fourth graders. We did a lot of hands on explorations, read some books and even went on a field trip to learn more about energy.

affiliate links may be included below.

Energy Unit

1. Light & Heat

• Read Eyewitness section on Light.
• Read Usborne: Energy, Forces and Motion Chapter on Heat.
• Did Energy Labs and Physic experiments on light and heat.

3. Objects / Friction / Gravity

• Read The Marvelous Thing That Came From a Spring
• Did Energy labs on Gravity and Objects.
• Played with this Gravity Maze game
• Created marble mazes with the Gravitrax set. This is a new favorite toy of ours. It is like the old school marble ramps but so much better!
• Did the Minecraft STEM Lab 2

FIELD TRIP BREAK! Playground Trip

We spent an early morning at the park playing and exploring slides, gravity friction and different kinds of force.

FIELD TRIP TIP: If your kids need something to write on or work from to stay focused, brainstorm a list of kinds of energy and make a simple scavenger hunt to check off as you race around the playground.

4. Sound Waves

• Did Energy Labs on Sound Waves
• Watched Magic School Bus: Haunted House and did this experiment from Scholastic.

5. Potential vs. Kinetic Energy

• Did Energy Lab on Potential vs Kinetic Energy
• Watched this video on YouTube that demonstrated the difference as well. It includes the formulas which was too advanced for us but the rest of the information was helpful.
• Planned our own Rollercoasters, built them with loose parts, and took aquiz to review what we learned with this printable from Teachers Pay Teachers.

6. Circuits

• Did Energy Labs on Circuits
• Played with Snap Circuits kits
• Did Minecraft STEM Lab 18

Review

Energy Robot Project from The Knitted Apple
We used this Energy Robot Project to review the different kinds of energy that we had learned about. It was a fun chance for the kids to show what they had learned.

after this we moved on to
Renewable Energy
Click to Read this Unit or

check out more
Fourth Grade ideas here.

Christmas is a magical time of year. I am a bit Christmas obsessed. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays so I never jump ahead, BUT the moment Thanksgiving is over we dive head first into Christmas. Therefore, with homeschooling my Fourth Graders, Christmas is taking over that area of life as well.

Here are our Homeschool Christmas Plans…

affiliate links may be included below.

Christmas Math

• Read Christmas Farm and play Grow Tree Farm Game from Math Geek Mama.
• 12 Days of Christmas Math Word Problems from TpT
• Make Santa Coordinates Pictures from TpT
• Christmas Math Games from TpT
• Bake Christmas Cookies (also relates to Science and Social Studies)

Christmas ELA

• Read Aloud a Chapter of How Winston Delivered Christmas by Alex T Smith each day. This book is so much fun. It is a story with a chapter for every day of Advent. It also has activity ideas throughout the book.
• Read: Best Christmas Pagent Ever
• Read The Polar Express and listen for metaphors and similes
• Compare and Contrast Traditional Christmas tales.
• Write our own Christmas story using the general structure from Write Shop.
• Watch Christmas movies once a week for our Brave Writer Movie Nights.
• Christmas Madlibs or do this Cookie Madlibs from TpT
• Roll a Christmas Story on TpT
• Christmas Vocabulary Pages from TpT

Christmas Social Studies

Christmas is different all around the world. We’ve been exploring different world cultures this year and in December we are going to learn about how different cultures celebrate Christmas. We are going to cookie cookies from around the world including some from the The World of Cookies for Santa book by M. E. Furman.

Here are some more Christmas traditions from around the world to try:

German Christmas Traditions:

• Advent Calendars : here’s a piece on the history of German advent calendars in case you’re curious.
• St Nicholas Day which is on December 6 this year.
• Advent Wreath
• Christmas Tree Pickles
• Sing German Christmas Songs like Silent Night

French Christmas Traditions:

• Try bûche de Noël, a chocolate sponge cake log

Irish & English Christmas Traditions:

• The day after Christmas Day, St. Stephen’s Day (known as Boxing Day in the UK and some other countries), is also very important in Ireland. In both countries, football matches and horse racing meetings are traditionally held on St. Stephen’s Day.

Italian Christmas Traditions

• One of the most important ways of celebrating Christmas in Italy is the Nativity crib scene. Using a Nativity scene to help tell the Christmas story was made very popular by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 (Assisi is in mid-Italy).
• Epiphany is also important in Italy. On Epiphany night, children believe that an old lady called ‘Befana’ brings presents for them. The story about Befana bringing presents is very similar to the story of Babushka.
• Make: Penettone Recipe:

Mexican Christmas Traditions

• From December 16th to Christmas Eve, children often perform the ‘Posada’ processions or Posadas. Posada is Spanish for Inn or Lodging. We’ll be reading Tomie dePaola’s book about Posada and acting it out if my kids are interested.
• One game that is often played at Posada parties is piñata. A piñata is a decorated clay or papier-mâché jar filled with sweets and hung from the ceiling or tree branch.

Christmas STEM

• Bake different Christmas cookies every week for our Poetry Tea Time. We’ve been baking and cooking a lot this year. We’ll be focusing on Christmas cookies through around the world.
• Build a Nativity Scene with Legos. There’s a Nativity Scene Lego Kit or you can challenge your kids to create their own with the pieces you already have.
• Cook our Raddish Kids Seasons Eatings kit.
• Grow Candy Cane Crystals with these printables.
• Code Christmas songs on Scratch

Christmas Music and Art

• Learn Christmas songs on the piano and recorder. My kids are beginners so these will be very basic songs.
• Christmas Music Theory lessons from My Fun Piano Studio
• Christmas Music Listening Worksheet from TpT
• Read Aloud Revival Christmas drawing lessons.
• Play Christmas Pictionary
• Deep Space Sparkle Reindeer or Santa art lesson.
• Virtual Field Trip to see the Nutcracker and do related art and dance activities.
• Put on a Christmas Show via zoom for our Grandparents. The kids will perform their piano and recorder pieces and read aloud their Christmas stories.

Christmas PE

• Christmas Decoration Scavenger Hunt walk around our neighborhood.
• Use Christmas brain breaks to create Christmas themed circuit workout.
• Go for a walk in Balboa Park to look for signs of Christmas

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10 Christmas Adventures for Kids