Introduction

Attention students:  The city of San Jose needs your help!  The city is trying to plan the year’s holiday celebrations, but is having trouble deciding how to do so.  They need you and your classmates to go on a quest to explore different holidays and report your findings back to them!

Sound interesting???  Great!  Continue on to the tasks section to read about your job.

• Write your name on the line that says "Explorer."
• Write the date.

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day & Presidents' Day
  
• Memorial Day & Veteran's Day
• Flag Day & Independence Day
  

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day & Presidents' Day
• Memorial Day & Veteran's Day
• Flag Day & Independence Day
  

• Use the information you learned in your exploration for step 3.
• Draw a picture for each holiday you are studying on the cover of your packet above your name.

• Use the information in your Holiday Research Chart.
• Write 3 ways your holidays are different.
• Write 3 ways your holidays are the same.

• Remember to use a topic sentence, transition words for your main ideas, and a conclusion sentence.

• Remember to use a topic sentence, transition words for your main ideas, and a conclusion sentence.

The work you do on your quest will be graded used the rubric below.  Read it before you start to know exactly what you will need to do and read it again after you are finished to see how you think you did.

	Below Standards 1	Approaching Standards 2	Meets Standards 3	Excels at Standards 4
Completes Packet Cover	Does not include name, date, and/or illustrations.	Includes name, date, and only one or two poor illustrations.	Includes name, date, and illustrations of two holidays.	Includes name, date, and two colorful illustrations with details gathered from research.
Completes Research Chart	Includes 1-2 of the following pieces of information on two holidays or all of the information on one holiday:  date of celebration, date of the first celebration, reason for the celebration, 1-2 symbols, and 1-2 traditions.	Includes 3-4 of the following pieces of information on two holidays: date of celebration, date of the first celebration, reason for the celebration, 1-2 symbols, and 1-2 traditions.	Includes all of   the following information about two holidays: date of celebration, date of the first celebration, reason for the celebration, 2-3 symbols, and 2-3 traditions.	Includes all of   the following information about two holidays: date of celebration, date of the first celebration, reason for the celebration, 4 or more symbols, and 4 or more traditions.
Completes Differences & Similarities Chart	Includes 1 difference and 1 similarity.	Includes 2 differences and 2 similarities.	Includes 3 differences and 3 similarities.	Includes more than 3 differences and/or more than 3 similarities.
Writes a Paragraph About Differences	The paragraph is poorly constructed and written. The illustration is missing, poor,  or unrelated to the  differences.	The paragraph is missing or has weak: topic sentence, main idea sentences with transition words, and/or conclusion. The illustration is missing, poor, or is unrelated to the differences.	The paragraph includes a topic sentence, 3 main ideas sentences with transition words, and a conclusion. The illustration includes at least one difference.	The paragraph includes a topic sentence, 3 main idea sentences with transition words, at least one detail sentence, and a conclusion. The illustrations includes 2 or more differences.
Writes a Paragraph About Similarities	The paragraph is poorly constructed and written. The illustration is missing, poor, or unrelated to the similarities.	The paragraph is missing or has weak: topic sentence, main idea sentences with transition words, and/or conclusion. The illustration is missing, poor, or is unrelated to the similarities.	The paragraph includes a topic sentence, 3 main idea sentences with transition words, and a conclusion. The illustration is neat and includes at least one similarity.	The paragraph includes a topic sentence, 3 main idea sentences with transition words, at least one detail sentence, and a conclusion. The illustration is detailed and includes 2 or more similarities.

Congratulations, Explorers!  You have completed your quest.  You studied when two United States holidays are celebrated, how they began, symbols of the holidays, and traditions people have today for celebrating the holidays.  Hopefully you have enjoyed your journey and now know much more about a few of the United States’ holidays. 

If you like, you may complete the quest again, studying a different pair of holidays!

The following sites provided all of the information I used to create this WebQuest.

• The template was obtained on The WebQuest Page at:
  
• http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html

• Ideas for content, format, and the project came from Shellye Wardensky's WebQuest at:
• http://yorkcountyschools.org/mes/Holiday%20Webquest/index.htm

• Clip art was collected at:
• http://classroomclipart.com/
• http://www.patriotism.org/
• http://school.discovery.com/clipart/
  

• A general search that led to the specific holiday sites was done at:
• http://kids.yahoo.com/directory/Around-the-World/Holidays

• Information regarding the specific holidays was found at:
• http://www.usemb.se/Holidays/celebrate/index.html
• http://www.patriotism.org/

• California Content Standards for the First Grade