– Celebrations & Unique Days from Around the World –
Planning after Winter Break – or rather after any break for that matter, is overwhelming. Looking at the next term and outlining the content and curriculum goals in and of itself is a huge task that seems daunting. Where to start? What language arts goals, texts, or projects should you start first? How to start them? Which math projects should you do to supplement daily practice and games?
My answer to every overwhelming question or task to do with planning is: start with celebrations and unique events happening around the world. Taking inspiration from celebrations, observances, unique days from around the world is a fun, reliable, and easy way to create a starting point for any unit, lesson, activity, or game.
From art projects, STEM activities, language arts texts, cross curricular activities, and more my 2024 Calendar includes 70+ celebrations, events, observances, and unique days acknowledged around the world that can inspire any short on time, and uninspired teacher. Grab it here!
My Go-To Time Saving Prep and Planning Tips:
- Use this calendar as a starting point when planning out your week and month
- Plan lessons and activities with the month’s theme in mind, especially so if you teach theme-based or/and with a cross-curricular approach
- Use the calendar’s events to inspire art projects, reading comprehension, math projects, literacy projects/activities, etc.
- Use the calendar’s events to decorate class bulletin, include fun facts and “Did You Know?” relating to the event & country showcased
- Include upcoming month themes and events in monthly or weekly newsletter to families – encourage families to reach out if there are celebrations that month that they celebrate at home
- Use the themes/events to inspire class prompts, discovery stations, displays, and decorations
- Use the themes/events to change up classroom library books, read aloud, & classroom visual library
- As a bonus, print title page doodle as either a fun coloring page to do, or a pre-filled colored version for your binder cover
- My favorite time saver is having a snapshot of the upcoming celebrations/events. Let’s face it – our teacher brains never turn off, so it’s always helpful for me to have a quick glance of what’s ahead in case I see a connection on Pinterest or social media to save for later. Here’s the free download!
Just a quick note: This is a disclaimer in acknowledgement and recognition that this calendar does not indicate all holidays, celebrations, observances, and unique events that occur around the world. It will continue to be a work in progress each year. The goal of this calendar is to serve as a starting point and a source of inspiration for teachers looking to highlight the multicultural, multilingual, and special world in which we live.
