Christmas Unit Plans

Next week, I'm so excited that we are planning a week of reading Christmas-related stories. Although we have not done "Santa Claus" at all for Christmas, they know who he is. I wanted to introduce them to some other familiar classic stories related to Christmas, so next week we will read a couple of picture books to introduce them to:

• The Legend of St. Nicholas
• The Nutcracker
• A Christmas Carol 
• "The Night Before Christmas" poem

We are planning to write our own rendition of "The Night Before Christmas" and maybe watching a version of A Christmas Carol. We are also planning to see a performance by the Russian Ballet of the Nutcracker at the end of the week. This will be their first exposure to a ballet performance. I'm curious what their response will be!  Anyway, I figure all of this can be considered Language Arts (Reading, Poetry) and Music/Arts (Nutcracker Ballet). If I can get them to DO some ballet, perhaps we'll throw in Phys Ed in here. :)