Back to Webquests

History of Christmas Webquest-    Intermediate Grade Levels

Introduction

Your group is looking for resources on the history of Christmas.  These can be poems, stories, articles, pictures or any other aspects you find on the web.

Objectives

• Describe the information collected about Christmas that you read or view
• Identify and describe your thoughts and feelings from the websites 
• Collect your information and ensure to reference your material and write notes
• Write a summary from your notes

Web Resources

These are the Websites recommended for your group to collect information.  There are many sites here for you to choose from.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/christmas.htm

http://www.christmas-time.com/ct-history.htm

http://www.culture.fr/culture/noel/angl/buche.htm

http://www.geocities.com/regkeith/linkholidays.htm

http://www.awod.com/gallery/probono/cwchas/fredxmas.html

http://www.everythingchristmas.com/

http://www.merry-christmas.com/

http://www.christmas.com/spirit/

http://www.bmts.com/santa/

http://www.christmas-time.com/prose.htm

http://www.christmas-time.com/ct-poetry.htm

http://www.imagitek.com./james/

http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm

Procedure

1. The teacher will form you into groups of four.
2. Your group will investigate and take notes from at least four websites
   1. One person will collect notes about where Christmas came from.
   2. The second person will collect notes on the history of the Christmas Tree.
   3. The third person will collect notes on the history of Santa Claus
   4. The fourth person will collect notes on Christmas poems, stories, and/or illustrations.
3. Ensure that your group share ideas and help each other with information found. 
4. Each vote for your favorite site from the resources listed above. 
5. Write a summary on the information you each found.

*Remember to reference your notes and summary.

Student Score Sheet

I assisted group members                                     Yes  No

I listened to other people in my group                  Yes  No

I tried my best                                                        Yes  No

I collected useful notes that can be shared with the class          Yes  No

I summarized my notes                                           Yes  No

Teacher Score Sheet

Student Name:  ________________________

5=  Superior work!  Referenced information, cooperative, extra effort involved in completing the assignment, correct spelling and grammar

4= Excellent job!  Referenced information, cooperative, correct spelling and grammar with few mistakes

3= Good job, referenced most information, helped your group somewhat when help was needed, most spelling and grammar was correct

2= Completed your assignment

1= Incomplete assignment

Circle 1,2,3,4, or 5

Worked cooperatively with group        1  2  3  4  5

Wrote comprehensive notes            1  2  3  4  5 

Shared Information and Discussed Ideas        1  2  3  4  5

Referenced their Information              1  2  3  4  5

Used correct spelling and grammar for summary   1  2  3  4  5

Used the internet for the assignment      1  2  3  4  5

Closure

Now that you know how to collect information from the internet and other resources, you can do this for any research topic.  You learned that it is important to acknowledge the people or organizations that wrote or collected the information in the resource.  You learned to do point form first before venturing into writing a summary.  After collecting all your notes you learned that the information you collected can be put into your own words.  Most of all, this assignment emphasizes the importance of cooperative learning and how much more you can accomplish by working in groups. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!