Build Background

• Ask students to identify holidays they celebrate. Invite them to describe how they celebrate these holidays. Record student responses on the board.
• Have students use the information on the board to identify similarities and differences between the ways each holiday is celebrated. Explain that people around the world celebrate different holidays and they have special ways of celebrating, called traditions.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Give students their copy of the book. Guide them to the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what the author might tell about in the book. Ask students what holidays might be shown in the photographs.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Explain to students that good readers use what they already know about a topic to understand and remember new information as they read.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge using the information on the covers.
  Think-aloud: As I look at the front cover of this book, I notice fireworks exploding in the sky. I have seen people light fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July. They are very colorful. How would you describe fireworks that you have seen? I didn't see the Fourth of July listed in the table of contents. What other holidays do you know that use fireworks as part of the celebration? What else do you know about fireworks?
• Have students preview the covers of the book. Ask them to make connections to prior knowledge and to discuss the photographs on the pages. Ask open-ended questions to facilitate the discussion: What holidays might be represented in these photographs? What traditions are represented in the photographs? What else do you see and why is it important to a book about world holidays?
• As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast

• Explain that one way to understand and organize new information in a book is to explain how topics are alike and different. Write the words compare and contrast on the board. Point out that explaining how things are alike is called comparing and explaining how things are different is called contrasting. Write the word alike under compare and the word different under contrast on the board.
• Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left side Pen and the right side Pencil.
• Show students a pen and a pencil. Model how to compare and contrast using these objects.
  Think-aloud: I can compare and contrast a pen and a pencil. I know a pen uses ink to make marks on a page, but a pencil uses lead. I will write ink on the Venn diagram under the heading Pen and lead under the heading Pencil to show one way that these two objects are different. I know that a pen and a pencil are both used for writing. I will write writing tools on the diagram where the circles overlap to show one way that these two objects are the same.
• Invite students to suggest other ways that a pen and a pencil are the same and different. Record student responses on the Venn diagram under the appropriate heading.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Ask students to turn to the table of contents. Remind them that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. Read the table of contents together.
• Review the correct pronunciation for: Hanukkah (HAN-nuh-kuh), Kwanzaa (KWAN-zah), Holi (ho-LEE), and Ramadan (rahmeh-DAHN). Discuss that each of these words is the name of a holiday celebrated around the world that students will be reading about in the book. Point out that the holidays all begin with a capital letter because they name a specific holiday.
• Introduce and explain the vocabulary worksheet. Have students work in small groups to discuss what they already know about the holidays listed in the table of contents. Have them record their ideas on their chart. Invite students to share their knowledge with the rest of the class.
• Turn to the glossary on page 16. Read the words and discuss their meanings aloud. Have students highlight or circle information they wrote on their worksheet about each holiday that matches the meaning of each word.
• Remind students to add information about each holiday to their worksheet as they read. After they read, the information on the chart will provide them with a better understanding of each holiday and how it is celebrated.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out how holidays around the world are celebrated and how the ways each holiday is celebrated are similar and different. Remind them to stop after every couple of pages to think about what they already know about holiday traditions.

During Reading 

Student Reading

    Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 6. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread the text. Have students fill in their   vocabulary worksheet with any additional information about the holidays. Ask them to highlight places in the text where they connected to prior knowledge.

• Think-aloud: When I read about Chinese New Year and placing good-luck sayings in homes, I thought about the fortunes that are inside fortune cookies. When I go to a Chinese restaurant, I always have a fortune cookie at the end of the meal. I wonder if wishing for good luck is something that is important in the Chinese culture.
• Ask students to share new information they wrote about the holidays listed on their vocabulary worksheet. Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left side Chinese New Year and the right side Christmas. Have students identify any similarities and differences they notice between Chinese New Year and Christmas. (Both holidays include traditions of giving gifts and using colorful objects to celebrate. Christmas is in December, but Chinese New Year is in January or February. Many people place a tree in their home to celebrate Christmas, but people place good-luck sayings in their home to celebrate Chinese New Year.) Record this information on the board.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8 and write additional information on their vocabulary worksheet that they learned about the holidays in the book. Ask volunteers to share how they connected to prior knowledge as they read. Ask open-ended questions to facilitate the discussion and check for students' understanding: Which traditions are similar your own holiday traditions? What are some of the symbols and customs associated with these celebrations? How are these four holidays similar and different?
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Ask them to think about what they already know about holiday celebrations and traditions to help them understand new information as they read. Remind them to fill in their vocabulary worksheet with additional information they learned about the holidays in the book.

    Have students make a small question mark in their book beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

After Reading 

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Discuss how making connections between information they read and what they already knew about the topic keeps them actively involved and helps them remember what they have read.
  Think-aloud: As I read about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, I thought about how these two holidays use candles to celebrate. I thought about how in my church, we light candles to celebrate the season before Christmas called Advent. We light one candle each Sunday before Christmas. This is similar to Kwanzaa and Hanukkah because they light candles to celebrate as well.
• Have students share examples of how they connected to prior knowledge to understand the information in the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Have volunteers use the information on their vocabulary worksheet to provide examples of how Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are alike and different (alike: use candles, begin in December, eat with family and friends, give gifts; different: a kinara is used for Kwanzaa to hold the candles and a menorah is used for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa lasts seven days and Hanukkah lasts eight nights).
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the Venn diagram on the compare and contrast worksheet. Have students choose two holidays from the book to compare and contrast other than Christmas and Chinese New Year, and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Prompt students with questions such as: Who do people celebrate with? When is the holiday celebrated? What activities are important? What symbols are important? Remind students to use the information on their vocabulary worksheet to compare and contrast the two holidays.
• Enduring understanding: People all over the world value particular customs, art, symbols, and traditions in holiday celebrations. Now that you know this, what does this information teach you about the similarities and differences among people of other cultures?

Build Skills 

Grammar and Mechanics: Subject-verb agreement

• Write the following sentences on the board: He gives gifts. They give gifts. Have volunteers come to the board and underline the subjects (He, They) and circle the verbs (gives, give) in the sentences.
• Ask students to explain the difference between the subject in the first sentence and the subject in the second sentence (he identifies one person; they identifies more than one person). Ask students what they notice about the verb in each sentence (give is singular; give is plural).
• Explain that when the subject is singular, or tells about one person, the verb often needs to have an s added to the end. When the subject is plural, or tells about more than one person, the verb that follows it often does not need an s at the end. Tell students that they can often hear whether or not the subject and the verb go together.
• Read the first sentence on page 5 in the book aloud to students. Ask them to identify the subject (Many people) and the verb (celebrate). Then read the sentence with the plural verb celebrates. Ask students which sentence is correct (first).
• Check for understanding: Write the following sentences on the board. Read each sentence aloud with students, one at a time: He share the toy with me. Families sing songs. He gives me a present. She give me a cookie. We like to sing. Have students give the thumbs-up signal if the sentence contains subject-verb agreement and the thumbs-down signal if the sentences does not contain correct subject-verb agreement. Ask volunteers to correct the sentences that are incorrect.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the subject-verb agreement worksheet.

Word Work: Alphabetical Order

• Choose six content vocabulary words that do not begin with the same letter, such as Christmas, dreidel, Holi, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, and traditions. Write these words out of alphabetical order on the board.
• Ask students to identify which word comes first in alphabetical order (for example, Christmas). Have them explain why the word comes first (the beginning letter comes first in the alphabet).
• Check for understanding: Have students write the vocabulary words in alphabetical order on a separate piece of paper. When students are finished, discuss their answers.

Build Fluency 

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students read the book aloud to someone at home. Have them compare and contrast a holiday celebrated at home with a holiday listed in the book.

Extend the Reading 

Writing and Art Connection
Have students create a poster about a holiday from the book. The poster should include illustrations that reflect the traditions associated with each holiday and a brief description to accompany each illustration.

Math Connection
Have students turn to page 15 in their book. Ask them to read and solve the Math Minute problems at the bottom of the page on a separate piece of paper. When students are finished, discuss their answers. Then have them use the Celebration Timetable on pages 14 and 15 in the back of the book to write their own math question about the various holidays. Have students pair with a partner to answer the questions or use the questions as a problem of the day for the rest of the class to answer each day.

Assessment 

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the strategy of connecting to prior knowledge during discussion
• accurately compare and contrast details within the text during discussion and on a worksheet
• understand and use correct subject-verb agreement during discussion and on a worksheet
• correctly alphabetize words during discussion

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