Differences Between American & Canadian Thanksgiving

This coming Monday in the United States is generally referred to as Columbus Day. In Canada this coming Monday is Thanksgiving. Start your Friday morning on a lighter note by watching one or both of the following humorous videos that explain the differences between Thanksgiving in Canada and Thanksgiving in the United States.



Definitely preview these videos and decide for yourself if they're appropriate for your classroom. I know a lot of high school teachers who will have no problem sharing these, but teachers of younger students probably won't want to share them.

Google Maps Some Christmas Traditions Around the World

This year Google's Santa Tracker website has a neat feature about Christmas traditions around the world. The Christmas Traditions map features the traditions of seventeen locations spread across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. Click a placemark on the map to read a short summary of a tradition in that location.

Applications for Education
Google currently offers a selection of lesson plans based on the Christmas Traditions map. If those lesson plans don't fit your needs you might consider having students create their own holiday traditions maps on Google My Maps. Click here to find three video tutorials on creating maps through Google My Maps.

H/T to Maps Mania.