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Saturday, December 10, 2011

12 days of Christmas...Texas Style!

   Who knew that such a fun and educational book would  spark such creativity?  My co-worker found this book while browsing the bookstore one day.  I am so glad she shared it with us because it is FABULOUS!  My students loved it (and so did I)!!!!

My original plan was to read it aloud and assign pairs of students to a "day".  Each "day" teaches the reader about a Texas State symbol such as the state tree, state motto, etc.   Well, I decided to read the original Twelve days of Christmas first.  I had so many kids tell me that they didn't know that a song could be a book so we had an impromptu lesson on poetry and songs.  Then I read aloud The Twelve days of Christmas in Texas.  I made a comment that the author was so smart to fit Texas facts and symbols in a poem we all knew and create a book.  Next thing I know I have my class begging.....yes, I said begging....me to let them create their own versions on the Twelve days of Christmas.  I didn't expect this idea to be very successful but how could I say no?  Boy oh boy, am I glad I didn't say no!

 The students grouped themselves and picked their own topics.  I have 6 groups of kiddos writing 6 different songs and creating books.  By the end of next week we should have 6 new books:  The Twelve Days of Christmas - Star Wars Edition (The first line being:  One the first day of Christmas George Lucas gave to me...), The Twelve Days of Christmas - Music (On the first day of Christmas Usher gave to me, a song called O.M.G).... then we have one based around animals, one about video games, about  horses, and about longhorns. My students are amazing! They are soooooo creative!  It doesn't matter what level they are they are ALL doing incredible!  We decided that they will perform their songs to some other classes, create a book mimicking the original and then even turn it into a photo story with the kids narrating it.  I will post the finished products when they are done but I just had to share this book (and my kiddo's idea!).  Hope this inspires you to try something similar with your class!

You can search amazon to see if they have Twelve days of Christmas in your state here:

6 comments:

  1. then your class would love The Visit...
    it's the story of the Origin The night before Christmas...

    written in verse from great, great grandson to his own kids to explain how it was written to his sick daughter... as well as another version to explain various lines in the poems that so many students don't understand. AWESOME

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  2. Your students are so creative and I love how you integrated tech into the lesson! Have fun.

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  3. As soon as I saw this post I knew I had to do it too! I read mine a version of the 12 days of Christmas, used your examples to start them off - and they are LOVING IT!!! We've got a project to take us through to summer holidays now =) (we're in Australia). We're planning to make ours into a powerpoint with them voicing what they've written too, if they finish them before we finish school I might send you one. There is a wrestling one to die for, an amazing music themed one, Christmas, animal, computer themes, they've really taken it on. Thank you so much for sharing this great idea!

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  4. Very fun! The best ideas come from really listening to the students.
    Thank you for sharing. Carolyn

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