Lesson 4: Thematic Springboards Part II: Topical Unit Study Ideas
4-3 Calendar
Unit studies based on calendar events are a special favorite. A one-day study for occasions like Valentine's Day, Easter, Memorial Day can be supplemented with material from many resource books designed to plan related events around such days. You can include whatever family celebrations you would normally have as well. For days like Christmas and Easter a longer period of time might work best. Our December educational activities all seemed to be flavored by the Christmas spirit. I'd print up worksheets with holiday clip art or printed on red or green paper. We even use old wrapping paper for some writing and drawing projects! The creation of homemade gifts for family and friends would be our arts & crafts for the season, thank you notes a handwriting project. We included studies of Christmas customs in other lands, other times. And, of course there'd be a wealth of TV shows and community activities related to the season. Even decorating the house and tree sparked stories of Christmases long ago and heritage family tales which could be bound together in a little booklet for a special gift to grandparents. For Internet resources on various holidays check http://holidays.com. The whole autumn season is cause for celebration at our house. For some activities worthy of a unit study, check out the Autumn Ed Fun section of the Suite's Autumn Harvest Festival.
Easter brings on a very special activity which used to be the base on which great unit studies were built. For many decades I've enjoyed dying Ukranian eggs. When I introduced Jenny to the art, I found several resources on the history of the art and two stories beautifully illustrated with Ukrainian egg paintings: Reschenka's Eggs and Chicken Sunday. We also studied the Ukraine. I read the stories by the candlelight we used to de-wax the eggs. Even today we pull out the books and dye a few more eggs each Easter. For New Year's Day consider having a 24-hour New Year's marathon . . . or a pared-down version to fit your schedule. Try ushering in the New Year with the usual hoopla as January 1st begins at the International dateline. You may want to follow the New Year around the globe, celebrating it over and over as it arrives at pre-determined locations. Pick your cities, countries in advance and research their New Year's customs, likely temperatures -- you can dress in shorts when the spot is hot, changing to your winter coat as the new year reaches colder climes -- or find out how to say Happy New Year in the language of the country. Http://babelfish.com or http://worldaltavista.com are some really helpful language translator sites for just this purpose. Use any techniques you want to bring the spot to life. On TV or the Internet you may actually be able to follow the celebrations live as they occur.
Keep in mind though:
It's easy to get carried away with the idea of making any and all occasions "teachable moments" – an idea not always appreciated by your children.
