Reading Enrichment Unit

As it is late Fall, I have decided to continue with my Holidays theme from my initiative in

the middle school but tailor it for the lower elementary school level instead. In composing

this unit the following Georgia Performance Standards for Kindergarten will be considered:

SSKH (In essence, students learn to identify and understand holidays.), ELAKR6 (In

essence, students gain meaning from orally presented text).

This Fall, I am conducting a reading enrichment unit with one of the Kindergarten classes at

Carter Elementary School. There are 21 students in this class – 13 boys and 8 girls.

The first segment will consist of talking to the students about the significance of holidays

which will lead into the opening segment. Christmas and Hanukkah are not a part of the

specified holidays that are required for inclusion in the above standard, but Thanksgiving is

included among these. Since this grade level at this school chooses to include Christmas and

Hanukkah each school year, I will follow their lead.

In introducing Thanksgiving, we will talk about how it represents a time to be thankful for

the most important things in each of our lives, i.e. family, friends, pets, food to eat, water to

drink, etc. (The classroom teacher will already be reinforcing this in her routine holiday

teachings. The students will be learning about the first Thanksgiving, making lists of what

they are thankful for, along with a cut and paste turkey art project and their classroom

Thanksgiving dinner.) We will talk about how Thanksgiving begins a special holiday season

where we spend time with our families and friends and ends with a time of giving and

sharing at Christmas.

I. I will read the following holiday season books:

a.) How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss

b.) Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect, by Richard Schneider

c.) My Two Holidays: A Hanukkah and Christmas Story, by Danielle Novack &

Phyllis Harris

We will talk about how older family members sometimes live in special homes where they

have nurses who can help them do everyday tasks (cook for them, read to them, brush their

hair, etc.) and take care of them if they are sick.

II. I will read My Grandma’s in a Nursing Home, by Judy Delton and Dorothy

Tucker which is a story about a little boy named Jason whose grandmother must

be moved to a nursing home to help with her Alzheimer's disease.

III. I am partnering with another school to adopt 20 nursing home residents with

Alzheimer's disease this holiday season. The Kindergarten classes and the teachers

will be collecting items requested by the home to fill 10 (of 20 total) stockings for

these residents. I am coordinating these efforts and will fill the stockings and

deliver them in December. In addition to the stockings, the home has requested

cards that are signed by the students so that the residents will feel as if it they are

receiving a personal card.

IV. We will make Christmas cards in the class using American Greeting’s free online

printable card making program (http://www.americangreetings.com/printables/) to

be delivered to the residents also. I will divide the students into small groups of 2-

3 at a time, and we will create cards for Christmas that the students will sign after

printing.