YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS: December Nonfiction Reading and Writing

Focus on the spirit of the holiday season with 26 activities based on "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." This engaging resource includes the full text of the editorial, background information, and everything you need to integrate nonfiction reading and writing with your December lesson plans, even with students who do not recognize or celebrate Christmas! This can easily be a 5-day unit or you can pick and choose the activities you like best and use over 1-2 days.

PERFECT FOR:

• Whole-class instruction
• Literature circles
• Reading groups
• Sub folder activities

LITERARY ANALYSIS ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:

• Building background knowledge
• Pre-reading
• Vocabulary analysis
• Comprehension checks
• Inferring
• Text evidence
• Synthesis
• Symbolism
• Summary writing
• Figurative language analysis
• Critical thinking and writing
• Rhetoric writing
• Text-dependent questions
• Discussion questions
• Author's craft
• Metacognition
• Connections

THIS RESOURCE INCLUDES:

• Background information
• Pre-reading activities
• Full text
• Anticipation guide
• 26 text-dependent activities
• Foldable book with instructions and 7 additional text analysis questions
• Activities recognizing December holidays around the globe and multicultural celebrations
• Post-reading activities
• Links to additional free resources, including a radio interview with Virginia O'Hanlon, photos and documents in the public domain, and a short animated film version of the story
• Grading rubrics (in 4-point scale and 10-point scale)
• Answer keys, teacher tips, learning objectives, and common core standards

DIFFERENTIATION:

• Definitions provided for challenging words
• Scaffolding
• Easy-to-read fonts
• Non-distracting aesthetics

FEEDBACK FROM TEACHERS:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "My students really like that this is a true piece of American History. Around the holidays it's hard to get their attention but this really worked wonders! The activities really work for critical thinking as well. I've used it 2 years in a row!"

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "A great Christmas activity, when the kids need to continue to work but want to do something Christmas related."

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Students loved this holiday activity!"

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