Tag: santa

NORAD Tracks Santa

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on NORAD Tracks Santa2257 views

 

What it is:   Who knew that NORAD Tracks Santa?  They do!  In partnership with Google Earth, now your students can track Santa live starting December 24th.  In the mean time, students can enjoy other fun holiday activities on the NORAD Tracks Santa site.  There is a count down to Christmas clock, Santa videos, information about Santa (including some history of the original St. Nick), Santa FAQ’s, Santa snack ideas, and Santa’s village where students will find fun Christmas themed games like light the Christmas tree (a logic puzzle), and Christmas memory.  Students can also learn about why and how NORAD tracks Santa.  This is a fun site for students to explore!

 

How to integrate NORAD Tracks Santa into the classroom:  Because this site uses Google Earth to track Santa, this may be a good time to teach your students how to use Google Earth and some map skills in preparation for tracking Santa.  The information pages about Santa and NORAD are great reading and discussion material for the holiday season.  Set up your classroom computers with Santa’s village countdown and let students take turns completing the light the Christmas tree challenge over the next few weeks.  

 

Tips:  The NORAD Tracks Santa site is available in seven languages!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using NORAD Tracks Santa in your classroom.

Northpole.com

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Northpole.com2561 views

What it is:  Northpole.com is a fun Christmas themed website for kids pre-k through 3rd grade.  Students can work on fine motor skills with activities like connect the dots, connect the dashes, and mazes.  You will also find great Christmas time activities to help build letter recognition, sound recognition, vocabulary, numbers, ordinal numbers, right and left, and size.  Students can practice writing skills with a letter to Santa or a holiday postcard.  Northpole.com has printable awards and diplomas for students who complete the activities.  Northpole.com also has a number of online Christmas stories that students can read on their own or have read to them.  My favorite feature are the personalized stories.  Students fill in their name and some other information and Northpole.com creates a story with the student as the main character that they can immediately read online!  

 

How to integrate Northpole.com into the classroom:  Use the outstanding activities on Northpole.com during the holiday season to teach and reinforce fine motor skills, alphabet, numbers, reading, and writing.  Set up your classroom computer as a personalized story generator.  Throughout the week, allow students to read a story about themselves during silent reading time.  

 

Tips:  The teacher page at Northpole.com gives a great break down of the site so you can find exactly what you are looking for.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Northpole.com in your classroom.