Lesson Plans for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

 

Day 1

Vocabulary Words of the Day  - contagious and penitentiary

contagious - Capable of transmitting disease; carrying a disease, catching, transmittable, infectious

Page 9 - "Right now?" Miss Hemphill stared. "Why, he shouldn't be in school with red spots! It could be measles or chicken pox . . . any number of things . . . contagious things."

penitentiary - a prison for those convicted of major crimes, correctional institution,  joint, keep, lockup, pen, penal institution, prison, reformatory, slammer

Page 14 - We figured they were headed straight for %*!#, by way of the state penitentiary . . .  until they got themselves mixed up with the church, and my mother, and our Christmas pageant.

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Read Chapter 1

Answer Online Questions for Chapter 1

Portals Skill Pages

Activity Doughnut Fun or Edible Fire trucks

The Herdmans loved doughnuts. Have a little fun with doughnuts. How about an eating contest. Tie a number of  doughnuts by string and hand them from the ceiling. Line up students, one per each doughnut. See which student can eat the doughnut the quickest without using his/her hands.

FIRE TRUCKS
graham cracker / spread red frosting on cracker, mini Oreos for the wheels, pretzels for the ladders, M&Ms for the lights.

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Day 2

Vocabulary Words of the Day  - privet and sentiment

privet - any of various Old World shrubs having smooth entire leaves and terminal panicles of small white flowers followed by small black berries; many used for hedges

Page 16 - One of the neighbor women called out, "Helen, are you in much pain?" and Mrs. Armstrong yelled back, "Yes, terrible! Don't let those children tear up my privet hedge!"

sentiment - a thought, view, or attitude, especially one based mainly on emotion instead of reason, emotion, opinion, attitude, outlook, reaction

Page 21 - He shrugged. "I like all the other stuff but she said to write down what we liked best, and what I like best is no Herdmans."

     "Not a very Christian sentiment," my father said.

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Read Chapter 2

Answer Online Questions for Chapter 2

Portals Skill Pages

Activity Draw the Herdmans

Page 4 - They were just so all-around awful you could hardly believe they were real: Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys --six skinny, stringy-haired kids all alike except for being different sizes and having different black-and-blue places where they had clonked each other.

Ralph  
Imogene  
Leroy  
Claude 2nd grade
Ollie 1st grade
Gladys  

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Day 3

Vocabulary Words of the Day  - sacrilegious and barge

sacrilegious - grossly irreverent toward what is or is held to be sacred, disrespectful, profane, blasphemous, improper, godless, sinful

Page 35 - Alice's mother told the Ladies' Aid that it was sacrilegious to let Imogene Herdman be Mary.

barge - to intrude or interrupt, especially rudely, break in, burst in, collide, infringe,  muscle in, push

Page 36 - Some people said it wasn't fair for a whole family who didn't even go to our church to barge in and take over the pageant.

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Read Chapter 3

Answer Online Questions for Chapter 3

Portals Skill Pages

Activity Make a poster advertising the Christmas pageant.

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Day 4

Vocabulary Words of the Day  - espoused and vengeance

espoused - to take as spouse; to take to wife; to marry, betrothed,  engaged

Page 41 - ". . . Joseph and Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child . . ."

vengeance - with great violence or force, punishment, revenge, settling of scores, retaliation

Page 45 - "Out of the black night with horrible vengeance, the Mighty Marvo---"

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Read Chapter 4

Answer Online Questions for Chapter 4

Portals Skill Pages

Activity  Make manager scene

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Day 5

Vocabulary Words of the Day  - villain and hustle

villain - a wicked or evil person; a scoundrel, bad character, rogue

Page 50 - "No, their chief instinct was to get Mary and the baby out of the barn. But even so, it was Herod they wanted to do away with, and not Mary or Joseph. They picked out the right villain --that must mean something."

hustle - to work or move energetically and rapidly, hurry up

Page 55 - You got the feeling these Wise Men were going to hustle back to Herod as fast as they could an squeal on the baby, out of pure meanness.

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Read Chapter 5

Answer Online Questions for Chapter 5

Portals Skill Pages

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Day 6

Vocabulary Words of the Day  - congregation and milling

congregation - a group of people gathered for religious worship, worshippers

Page 61- And that's what we're going to do, just as if we were doing it for the whole congregation.

milling - moving about or around, shuffling

Page 68 -  But by that time the kitchen was fuller of smoke than the ladies' room, because, while everybody was milling around in the street, all the applesauce cake burned up.

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Read Chapter 6

Answer Online Questions for Chapter 6

Portals Skill Pages

Activity Make Applesauce Cake

Apple Desert
Ingredient Quantity  
Graham Cracker
Applesauce 1 can or jar
Bananas 2 (use either bananas or crushed pineapple below)
Pineapples 1 can crushed (well drained)
Whipped Cream
Instructions

 		 Place graham crackers (or vanilla wafers) in bottom of shallow pan. Add a layer of

 		 applesauce, then a layer of banana slices (or crushed pineapple) then a layer of

 		 whipped cream. Repeat until you have 2, 3 or 4 layers. Then cut and eat.

Apple Sauce Parfaits 
Unsweetened applesauce 
Crushed cinnamon graham crackers 
Clear plastic cups and spoons 

Put a layer of applesauce in the bottom of the cup, then crackers, continue till the cup is full. Children enjoy crushing the crackers themselves as well as layering the apple sauce and crackers. This is a snack with eye appeal. Variation; fill cups with applesauce and use the crackers that have been separated as dipping sticks to eat with instead of spoons.

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Day 7

Vocabulary Words of the Day  - charitable and confer

charitable - generous in giving money or other help to the needy, giving, accommodating

Page 75 - My father was on the church charitable works committee --they give away food baskets at Christmas, and this was the Herdman's food-basket ham.

confer - to meet in order to deliberate together or compare views, discuss, put heads together, have a conversation, consult

Page 76 - While we sang "What Child Is This?" the Wise Men were supposed to confer among themselves and then leave by a different door, so everyone would understand that they were going home another way.

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Read Chapter 7

Answer Online Questions for Chapter 7

Portals Skill Pages

Activity Guess the Christmas Carol http://www.brownielocks.com/ChristmasCarolPictureQuiz.html