Bring a Bit of Whoville to Your Classroom
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With restrictions on what can be read, what can be taught, and what can even be mentioned in many of today’s public schools due to the separation of church and state, it may seem like there is no way to incorporate such a holiday classic. Thankfully, the heart of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is about far more than a holiday. The meaning of the story is about giving, sharing, and loving. This holiday season turn students’ focus away from “getting” and instead focus it on “giving back.” Have students start a holiday collection drive of canned goods for the local food pantry or a book drive for a children’s hospital. Track their progress on a How the Grinch Stole Christmas decorated bulletin board. It will be the perfect reminder that it is not how much you get, but how much you give that is most important.
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Commented On November 15th, 2011 11:55 am
We could talk about appreciation for the things you have, and about the benefits of family coming together. We could also talk about friendship, as it is one of the things the Grinch gains in the end.
In Math, we could prepare the Who Feast (or, on a smaller and cheaper scale, we could make the Who Pudding). There’s measurement involved in even a simple pudding recipe. [I'm thinking we could throw some multiplication in there too since you'd have to use multiple boxes of pudding for a whole class.]
In a combined Science Skills/ Literacy lesson, beyond the normal book-study stuff, I could have them PREDICT what future Christmases might look like in Whoville, now that the Grinch loves Christmas and everyone has become much closer. They could write and illustrate their predictions.
Of course, we would also do lots of creative art projects, and I’d probably play the soundtrack from the movie as a fun musical component.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 12:01 pm
I incorporate Dr. Seuss’ hidden messages into my classroom all the time. My room is decorated with Lorax items and we use that to talk about protecting the environment; I also like to use The Sneetches for anti-bullying and anti-racism. The Grinch is wonderful for teaching the true gift of giving!
Commented On November 15th, 2011 12:03 pm
I teach at a Catholic School. This Christmas season we have decided to adopt a less fortunate family in our community. I plan on reading “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to my class. Then we will make the comparison that this family has nothing but Christmas will still come and because of their generosity this family will have a Christmas this year too. We will make cards to go along with the presents our family is receiving from the donations of our class.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 12:22 pm
Dr. Seuss is our Author of the Month for February in my first grade classroom. My firsties love, love, love to write. My lesson would include using “the Grinch” story and giving my kiddos a chance to put their creativity to work, they would create their own Whoville characters and write about their personalities.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 1:18 pm
I would focus on the Whos in Whoville, who despite not having all the fancy presents and decorations of Christmas still remembered what the importance of Christmas was and sang out loudly and joyfully because they still had each other. Sharing that love and hope was what freed the Grinch’s heart.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 3:27 pm
Due to being in a high poverty area very hard to do book or food drives. Instead making place mats for the elderly works well and still shows the loving and giving side of it!
Commented On November 15th, 2011 4:22 pm
Love that idea!
Commented On November 15th, 2011 7:03 pm
I use Dr Suess throughout the whole year in my classroom!
I love to focus on How the Grinch Stole Christmas during the holidays because it’s a great theme to use in all areas. Have them do a special writing assignment from the perspective of different characters in the story. The best part is it helps reinforce the true meaning of Christmas.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 7:08 pm
I LOVE Dr. Seuss and the students do too! I could totally use the story to do an anti-bully type of lesson. Letting them know that sometimes people who don’t feel apprecaited and loved, can act in a negative way. Then we can discuss ideas to help everyone in our class know they are special.
As a fun twist, we can make holiday decorations with notes on them. Every student can randomly pull a name of a fellow student and then write how that person is important/special to our class. Then we can put the decorations on the tree that I put up in my classroom.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 8:09 pm
My 6th grade students enjoy using the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/) to research movies such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. They use the site to find the genre, characters, actors, setting, plot, and other details.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 8:14 pm
I used “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” as a template for a creative writing assignment in which the students wrote and illustrated their own children’s story. Last year, I first read the story aloud to the class and my high school students were absolutely enthralled. Then, I used it to review the elements of a story and characterization. This is a wonderful project for those last few days before vacation.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 8:25 pm
I teach respect, community and civic responsibility everyday. I think the Grinch theme would fit in perfectly with our classroom’s and school’s mission. I love the idea of using it to remind students to give back to each other and their communities. I would use it to decorate a board where we will keep track of donations of warm mittens, hats and socks for the local community outreach center. My students have chosen it as our community service project this year.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 9:15 pm
I use “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to introduce the concept of how characters change and what makes them change. (cause and effect). My first grade students clearly see that when the Whos celebrated Christmas anyway, the Grinch’s heart grew and he changed his ways.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 11:06 pm
I love Dr. Seuss and his hilarious way of getting messages across. As a school counselor, I use his books in both small groups and whole class guidance lessons. This would be a great book for perspective taking (e.g., why does the Grinch hate Christmas so much, how does feel when he hears the Whos singing, etc.) Also, it’s a great book for learning about how not to give a bully power over your emotions, and how to reach put to someone despite their outward behavior. Great book all around!
Commented On November 15th, 2011 11:07 pm
I take the the story and broken it up into several parts. I then white out certain words and place numbers and blanks where the words were. On a separate paper I make a list of the numbers and next to them I put either noun, verb, adjective, etc… It is like a home made version of Mad Libs where my middle schoolers get to practice parts of speech while having some holiday fun.
Commented On November 15th, 2011 11:13 pm
I have used this story as a basic parts of speech review. After reading the story I hand out copies of pages where students are told to fill in the blanks with the type of word specified (i.e. noun, verb, agjective, etc…). I then hand them the corresponding story page that goes with their list and we re-read the story out loud Mad Lib style. It is educational and fun for my middle school students.
Commented On December 2nd, 2012 10:34 am
I am planning a Grinch Day in my class where we will all wear green, etc., However, I am excited to put a giant picture of the Grinch at the front of the room. I have those heart post-its and when we see someone doing something kind, we are going to write it on one of the heart post-its and place it on the Grinch. Maybe we can help his heart grow bigger and bigger.