Students love these close reading passages with high-interest Christmas Around the World. Teachers love the reading skills and social studies content.

Engaging Close Reading, Christmas Around the World

The best part of this close reading set is that your students will be engaged – deeply engaged with reading!

This information is novel and interesting to upper elementary students. They just love studying about other cultures and holidays around the world.

Integrated Social Studies and Reading

A unit on culture and world communities is not complete without studying holidays and celebrations. Christmas Around the World (Close Reading) integrates five different world cultures:

1. American Christmas
2. Christmas in Africa
3. A Japanese Christmas
4. Saint Nicholas in Germany
5. A Mexican Christmas

Students will discover interesting foods and diverse traditions for this fun winter holiday. This is serious, yet highly engaging reading!

Dig Deeper with Close Reading

What is close reading?

Close reading is thoughtful, critical analysis of a text that focuses on significant details or patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text’s form, craft, meanings, etc. It is a key reading strategy that directs the reader’s attention to the text itself.

Read more about Close Reading for Elementary Students.

What Skills are in this Close Reading?

There are five close reading passages with activities. Each section of text has three sets of questions.

1. The first set of questions requires students respond to the text in short answer responses (SAR).
2. The second set of questions require students to analyze the text by taking notes and summarizing the text.
3. The third set of questions use a graphic organizer to analyze text structure.