TEACHER'S GUIDE

The Mystery of the Missing Munchies

December is a month rich with celebrations. Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa are just a sample of the well-celebrated holidays students' families may be enjoying, and there are many other traditional days to commemorate. Whatever your celebration needs, this play can be customized to reflect your students' particular customs and cultures. You can easily modify portions of the dialogue to reflect your own celebrations and commemorations. You can also take the experience a step farther and have parents or students bake the holiday treats to be used in the play or enjoyed afterwards. Why not use this play as a segue into your own class multicultural fest, with everyone present in the audience joining the cast and other students for an ethnic celebration?

An Ellis Island Christmas Maxinne Rhea Leighton (Viking, 1992)

Pancho's Piñata by Stephan Czernecki and Timothy Rhodes (Hyperion, 1992)

Seven Candles for Kwanzaa by Andrea Davis Pinkney (Dial, 1993)

Hanukah, Oh Hanukah! by Wendy Wax (Bantam, 1993)

When planning a party, plan on including not only ethnic treats but ethnic music, as well. Ask parents and children to bring instruments or recordings to the festivities so they may share holiday songs and music from their individual cultures or backgrounds. Invite participants to tell why the music is so special in their family history or to them personally.

Have children ask family members to provide copies of favorite family or ethnic recipes to contribute to a Family Recipe Book. Have students copy the recipes onto lined paper. Provide blank pages for children to illustrate with pictures or photos of their families eating the recipes featured. Help children develop captions for their illustrations and photos. Bind pages together into a book and circulate among all the children and their families.

Tell children to imagine they are in Mr. Kramer's class and have just had their holiday mystery party. What would they write about it for a school newspaper? How would they describe what happened? Have students illustrate their stories if they wish. (Hint: To guide their reporting efforts, have students study the journalistic structure found in most newspaper features.)

Have each student make a list of all the celebrations (including birthdays and family picnics) that they participate in each year. Older students may find it helpful to consult a month-by-month calendar, younger students may find it necessary to complete the exercise at home with the help of family members. Then cover a large bulletin board or hallway with craft paper and create a grid design with a marker. Use the display to graph students' names and all their celebrations. Have students fill in the boxes on the graph with a few words describing one way they commemorate each holiday. What did the children learn about the days and ways they celebrate? Are there any similarities among the children's responses? What accounted for any differences?

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