American Holidays Unit Study

American Holidays Unit Study

Take a look at what makes a holiday a federal holiday and the history of the holiday or its modern celebration including:

• New Year’s Day
• Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
• Washington’s Birthday
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Columbus Day
• Veterans Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

Each unit is completely self-contained, so you can study them as you celebrate the holidays through the year or study them together as part of your social studies curriculum. Each lesson has short, informative text followed by comprehension questions based on what was read.

The student can read the lesson text (or a parent/teacher can read it aloud) and use the notebooking page that is included for written narration, using the questions as writing prompts. This often works better for students who struggle with reading comprehension questions. Alternatively, you can ask the questions orally if that suits your student’s learning style best.

Suggested vocabulary words are bolded. You can have your student look up the definitions and use them to create a notebook. Students can also find suggested definitions for the words in the glossary at the end of the unit.

In addition to reading comprehension questions, each lesson is followed by prompts for additional research and a notebooking page to record what is found. A final review quiz and notebooking page for a report on the student’s favorite holiday are also included at the end of the unit.

You will find answer keys for all reading comprehension questions and the review quiz at the end of the resource. Answer keys for the additional research are not included as much of these answers will vary based on the sources used for research.