Independence Day |
Labor Day |
Children's Day |
Cherry Blossom Season |
Holiday Traditions
From
Around the World
Essential Understanding: Traditions reflect the
beliefs, values, and heritage of a culture.
A major part of any Social Studies curriculum is the exploration of different cultures. As our world becomes more and more interconnected, through travel and communication, it is important to understand the similarities and differences between groups of people. This project will give you the opportunity to explore holiday traditions from many different countries around the world.
People from all over the world have many different traditions. Traditions are activities that people do every year, or at least on a regular basis. Many traditions are activities that people do to help celebrate holidays.
This project is designed to help us learn more about traditions from around the world. As part of this activity you will also be examining traditions from your own family.
The final activity in this project
will ask you to create a multimedia presentation that will inform your
classmates about traditions within your own family. You will be using
KidPix to report your findings and to share them with the class.
At the end of this project you will have two finished projects. You will be using your research to help you identify traditions that your family celebrates throughout the year. You do not need to use only holiday traditions. You may use any traditions that your family celebrates. You will be writing a paragraph to inform your teacher about the traditions within your own family.
The final item in this project will be your multimedia presentation. You will be using KidPix to describe the traditions that your family celebrates.
In order to help you understand your own family traditions you will start by researching how different countries each celebrate holidays. As you research each country, pay attention to how some traditions are alike, and how some traditions are different from each other.
Step #1
You will begin by researching 2 countries from the list
below. You will take notes on each country that you research. Remember
to just write down important details, not whole sentences. Use the worksheet,
"Holiday Traditions From Around the World," to gather information.
Step #2
1. Now
select 2 countries and begin your research using the Internet and your
worksheet.
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2. Use
a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the countries that you have researched.
Compare the celebrations in the two different countries. Use your notes
to help you. If you need to get more information, refer back to the Internet
sites in Step #2.
1. You
will now be going back to the classroom to begin a writing project. You
will be writing in paragraph form to inform your teacher about celebrations
that you follow in your own home.
You may write about any traditions that your family celebrates. Your traditions do not need to be centered around any holiday. Try to use some of the information that you have learned during your research. You should describe at least 2 traditions that your family celebrates. Describe each tradition, using details from your family celebrations. If possible try to describe where your family traditions have come from. (Did the tradition start with a grandparent, or a sibling? Is your tradition from a specific country?) Your details should paint a picture in your reader's mind of the family activities, decorations, and so on.
Step #5
1. You will now begin working on your final item
in this project. You will be using 
to design a multimedia presentation. Your presentation will be given in
class, to your fellow classmates. You will be informing the class about
the traditions within your own family. You will want to use the writing
that you completed in Step #4 to help you gather ideas. The guidelines
for your report are listed below.
Below you will find scoring guides
to help you assess your own projects. You should examine them BEFORE
you begin your work. You will find one scoring guide for the writing prompt,
and one scoring guide for the KidPix presentation.
Family
Tradition Writing Rubric
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The writer consistently provides accurate, specific, purposeful information that is extended and expanded to fully explain the topic. | The writer establishes an organizational plan and consistently maintains it. | The writer provides information relevant to the needs of the audience. | The writer consistently provides language choices to enhance the text. |
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The writer provides information that adequately explains the topic, with some extension of ideas. The information is accurate and purposeful. | The writer establishes and maintains an organizational plan, but the plan may have some minor flaws. | The writer provides information most of which is relevant to the needs of the audience. | The writer frequently uses language choices to enhance the text. |
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The writer provides information that seldom explains the topic. The information is sometimes inaccurate, general, or extraneous. | The writer generally establishes and maintains an organizational plan. | The writer provides some information relevant to the needs of the audience. | The writer seldom uses language choices to enhance the text. |
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The writer provides insufficient information to explain the topic. The information provided may be vague or inaccurate. | The writer either did not establish an organizational plan or, if an organizational plan is established, it is only minimally maintained. | The writer did not provide information relevant to the needs of the audience. | The writer rarely, if ever, uses language choices to enhance the text. |
Kid Pix Presentation Rubric
| 3 points |
-Title page -At least 3 slides of details -Slides containing both text and graphic support -Complete sentences |
| 2 points |
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| 1 point |
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| 0 points |
No or poor attempt |
This project was designed to help you look at a variety of different cultures. Within these cultures you have explored many traditions and many holiday celebrations. Hopefully, you discovered that your own family also has many important traditions of their own. Take some time to consider the traditions that your classmates shared. Some classmates would have had similar traditions. There must have also been some classmates with very different traditions.
Although everyone in your class lives near each other, you all have different families and different traditions. Your own family traditions help to give your family it's own unique culture. No single culture is better than another culture. No family is better than another family. The uniqueness of our own families help to make our lives exciting and diverse.
The research for this project will all be done through various sites containing information on Christmas traditions located at the web page titled "Christmas Around the World" or other holiday traditions.
Originally Written
by:
Mike Phelan
Belvedere Elementary
School
Anne Arundel
County Public Schools
Last Updated September 2002