Holiday+Celebrations+2



Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa the holiday season is a time when people look forward to celebrations, time with family and friends, sharing good food, vacations, giving gifts, decorating, etc. Many of us also look forward to traditions that make our holidays special and give us memories that will last a lifetime. The definition of the word "tradition" on the [|Miriam Webster Online Dictionary] website is: [|an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom)"] One famous holiday tradition that you may be familiar with is the White House Christmas Tree. Each year a tree is selected and delivered to the White House to be decorated and displayed in the Blue Room. This year a beautiful 28 foot blue spruce lit up Washington D.C. December 6. Click here to read about that tradition.

"Love makes a family." - Gigi Kaeser, Love Makes a Family So how will you celebrate your holiday this year? Is your family starting a new tradition or keeping old ones? What are you most looking forward to? Do you have family or friends coming home for the holidays or are you heading somewhere special to celebrate? Will your family decorate your home or cook a special meal?

Students will be able to use technology to produce and publish writing. Students will be able to produce clear and coherent writing __with development and organization appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.__

Your assignment is to write a paragraph describing what traditions make your holiday special for you and your family. Perhaps it is baking Christmas cookies with your grandmother or going to Bright Nights with your cousins.

Please take time to think about your answer:
 * 1) Remember to use descriptive words,
 * 2) explain why these traditions are special to you,
 * 3) how being a part of these traditions makes you feel.
 * 4) You might also want to explain how/when the traditions were started.

Make the paragraph interesting! Remember to be creative with your writing. __**Your story should flow with a beginning, middle and ending.**__ Use adjectives and your five senses to make your story come to life. And as always please write positive comments on your classmates entries.
 * write a rough draft using paper and pencil,
 * review it to make changes and
 * check for spelling and grammar before
 * posting your response using the discussion feature on this page.

**Happy Holidays~Mrs. Corrieri and Mrs. McDonald**

Below are some fun and interesting websites that share information on holiday traditions.

[|The Earth Calendar] is a pretty cool site that is a day book of holidays and celebrations around the world. You can click on the "Today" button to view what and where holidays are being celebrated on this day. You can also use the tabs at the top of the book to navigate by specific catagories.

[|Celebrate Winter Holidays] is a wonderful site from [|Scholastic] that shares information about how children from around the world celebrate the holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Images were found on [|Google Images].
 * The Ludlow Public School District is not responsible for any information that may be accessed once the user has left this wiki, including external web page content as well as material accessed via links from external web pages.