skills on the web

As a matter of fact, this is one of the best times of the year to reinforce all that learning that has taken place from September until now.

Children can work on their reading skills and have fun on the sites featured below.

They won’t even realise all the skills they’re learning.

See how Christmas is celebrated all over the world by checking out http://www.whychristmas.

com/cultures/.

Just click on the flag next to the name of the country to find fun facts about the country.

Student get cool geography lessons when they pull up information by clicking green countries on a map.

The History Channel offers a site with essays and videos about Christmas carols, Christmas celebrations, Christmas gift giving, Santa Claus and the origins of the candy cane at http://www.history.

com/topics/christmas/ history-of-christmas.

Did you know that Santa used to wear many different coloured clothes until a Coca Cola advertisement in the 1930s dressed him in red? On this site, students learn a lot about Christmas history.

Following directions can mean the difference between success and failure in life and school. Christmas offers a fun way to teach this skill to children through holiday baking.

The site below offers baking projects for children. Children learn the gift of giving when creating an apple pie cookie kit in a jar. Making Rudolph shortbread cookies teaches mathematics skills. Mini elf doughnuts teach the concept of scale, melted snowmen teach creativity.

Each recipe is rated for difficulty and each recipe provides the amount of time it takes to make the treat.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.

com/recipes/collection/ christmas-kids Children can practise their reading skills with a fun, interactive site called Northpole.

com. Click on one of the houses in the village and discover Christmas information to read about.

There are activities like Christmas ornaments to make. Small children can visit the reindeer barn where elves work and reindeer eat.

This is a good site for children four to six to learn how to navigate a website. Follow the directions and discover fun activities. This animated site with its vivid colours, sound and activities will appeal to small children. Santa’s mail room is a busy place where elves sort the mail.

Bells, gongs and other Christmas sounds abound in each place.

http://www.northpole.com/. Children find hidden stories in the kitchen where gingerbread is baking. There’s so much to discover on this site. A site called Internet for Classrooms provides hyperlinks to a variety of kid-friendly sites. At http://www.internet4classrooms.
com/christmas.htm children can find Santa’s instant report on whether they have been naughty or nice. They can send email messages to Santa, adopt an elf buddy, discover Christmas puzzles, craft ideas, Christmas music, daily updates on Santa news and much more.

Tech Digest provides a list of the Top 50 Christmas websites at http://www.techdigest.tv/2006/12/ top_50_christma.html.

Here, children can find very imaginative sites that help them to develop their analytical skills during Christmas vacation. What would children do if they met an alien on December 20? Educational games abound on this site.

Blackdog Christmas provides Christmas jokes, riddles, word searches, games and stories. Christmas with Virtual Finland shows children how Christmas is celebrated in Scandinavia and a Victorian Christmas helps them to explore Christmas celebrations in the past. The Christmas Truce is another good history lesson that explores the famous Christmas Truce of World War I.

There are so many great, fun-filled Christmas learning sites to explore so that no child is left behind at Christmas.