Students all around the world celebrate the traditions surrounding the Christmas holiday. Teachers create lesson plans that incorporate Christmas into the academic curriculum of fifth grade students. Students write essays and fictional stories with a Christmas theme both for the enjoyment of the holiday, as well as to fulfill academic requirements.

Celebrations Around the World
For this writing activity, students complete research about Christmas celebrations around the world and write a comparison/contrast essay based on their research. Students begin with a Venn Diagram and are put into pair groups to complete research. A Venn diagram is used to organize information on paper, so that students can compare topics. Groups use books and the Internet to gather information about Christmas celebrations from around the world. As pairs are doing their research, they work together to complete their diagram. Using the Venn diagram, each student will write a comparison/contrast essay about Christmas celebrations around the world.

Reindeer Diary
Students will write a diary entry from the point of view of one of Santa's reindeer. Teachers begin by reading a reindeer-themed holiday book, such as "The Wild Christmas Reindeer" by Jan Brett. She will lead the class in a whole group discussion about point of view when writing a fictional piece. Students will choose one of Santa's reindeer and work independently to brainstorm a list of thoughts he might have during the day of the "big flight." Students focus their diary entries on how the reindeer prepare for the trip, what feelings they have about their big responsibility, and end with thoughts about what it is like to work for Santa.

Judge a Book By Its Cover
With this writing activity, fifth grade students get to use primary picture books to make predictions about the theme and plot of stories they have not read before. Teachers begin by collecting a variety of Christmas picture books. She should have enough so each child will have his or her own book. The picture books need to have colorful and detailed illustrations on the covers for this activity to be a success. Each student chooses one of the books they have not read before. The teacher directs her class to spend a few minutes making observations and taking notes about what they see on the cover. Then, students write a paragraph outlining their thoughts about what they predict the book will be about. After writing their paragraphs, students read the books cover to cover to see how close they were with their predictions.