Welcome to The Holiday Zone -- your one-stop resource for free holiday and seasonal educational activities. Click on the icons below to find free learning resources for all of your favorite winter holidays including learning games, language activities, writing prompts, songs, action rhymes, fingerplays, printable worksheets, flash cards, word walls, puzzles, coloring pages, arts and crafts, ELL resources, and other winter fun.
Featured Winter Holidays For a complete listing of holiday and seasonal resources, click here.
Visit this page to find a variety of songs, action rhymes, coloring pages, puzzles, crafts, games, worksheets and other activities to celebrate the season of winter.
Hanukkah
Begins at sundown on
December 11, 2009
Hanukkah (also spelled Chanukah) is an eight-day celebration that begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev.
A Jewish holiday, Hanukkah commemorates the miraculous victory of the Jews, led by the Maccabees, over the Greeks and Antiochus Ephipanes. Hanukkah marks the end of religious persecution and oppression. Hanukkah reminds the Jewish people of God's faithfulness to them as well.
Christmas
December 25, 2009
More than 2,000 years
ago, a baby was born in a barn in Bethlehem. Humble as His beginnings were,
He would forever alter the course of history. Today, millions around the
world celebrate the birth of that child, Jesus Christ, on Christmas Day.
New Year's Day
January 1, 2010
The oldest of all holidays, New Year's Day was first celebrated in Babylon about 4,000 years ago.Later civilizations continued the tradition, but the early Roman Catholic Church banned all celebration of the day due to its pagan history. Not until the seventeenth century did the western world once more begin to celebrate on the first day of each year.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 18, 2010
Few men have influenced contemporary U.S. history as much as Martin Luther King Jr. An African-American minister, King called for an end to racial discrimination and led civil protests against discrimination throughout the United States. His life is now commemorated on the first Monday after his birthday (January 15) each year.
Black History Month
Observed throughout the month of February
This page offers crafts, songs, printable resources, games, discussion topics and other activities for celebrating Black History Month.
Valentine's Day
February 14, 2010
Stories about the origin of Valentine's Day abound. One popular legend traces the holiday back almost 2000 years. The Roman emperor Claudius made it illegal for young men to get married without his permission. One priest, St. Valentine, defied the emperor's command and secretly performed marriages. When Claudius found out, he had Valentine thrown in jail. Then, on February 14, Valentine was executed. About two centuries later, the church named February 14 Valentine's Day in his honor. Today, people give flowers, candy, cards, and gifts to the people they love on this special day.
Presidents Day
February 15, 2010
Celebrated the third Monday of February, Presidents Day began as a tribute to America's First President, George Washington and is still officially titled "Washington's Birthday." In recent years, the holiday has evolved into a day to honor all of America's past presidents.
The Holiday Zone offers free educational resources for use in early childhood and elementary educational settings. Holiday and seasonal materials include learning games, whole language activities, writing prompts, songs, action rhymes, printable worksheets, printable and interactive puzzles, coloring pages, and children's literature recommendations. This site is child-friendly and does contain some content geared specifically toward children, but is targeted primarily toward educators, child care providers, and parents. The intended audience includes preschool teachers, kindergarten teachers, elementary classroom teachers, homeschoolers, parents, grandparents, and others who work with children
The Holiday Zone also offers
resources created especially for use in the ESL/EFL classroom. ESL teachers
and EFL teachers alike will find information and reproducible materials to
help their ELL students gain a better understanding of traditional western
holidays. ESL/EFL resources include reading comprehension activities,
holiday vocabulary guides, printable illustrated word wall cards, puzzles,
worksheets, and discussion topics geared specifically toward English language
learners (ELLs). Interactive reading comprehension tasks, interactive quizzes,
and interactive puzzles are also being added for the benefit of English language
learners who visit this site.
The EFL Playhouse:
Offering games, songs, action rhymes, printable worksheets, phonics resources, teaching tips, and other educational resources for teachers of young English Language Learners (ELLs).
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