Best Christmas Books for Elementary School Students

As Christmas approaches, elementary school tutor Lauren Wood has a wealth of Christmas-themed books which she leaves lying around the house. All the younger students who visit eagerly read them in anticipation of the big day. “It’s a great way to get them the read,” she says, “and there are so many great Christmas classics for them to choose from.” Here is a list of all the classic novels that every young student should have in their library.

A Night before Christmas
Clement C. Moore’s classic poem is perhaps one of the best-known classics. You can read it to your students or, better still, get them to read it to you on Christmas Eve. It’s a cute little poem that has some complex language which you can help them with. Keep a dictionary on hand so that they can look up any words that they don’t understand.

The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving
While Christmas time is supposed to be about giving and sharing, it’s easy for students to get focused on receiving. This is a wonderful book by Jan Berenstain to remind students of the joys of giving. Written in 1962, this true classic is a must for every student. You can augment the tale by asking your students to pick one toy to donate to those who are less fortunate.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
The Grinch has become a staple for every discerning Christmas reader. This delightful poem about a mean, green Grinch is fun and funny. You can read the book first and then watch the animated short or the full length movie by the same name.

The Nightmare before Christmas by Tim Burton
This beautifully illustrated novel is about a well-meaning Halloween skeleton who decides to play Santa with disastrous results. It’s the perfect holiday read for those who are fans of Halloween. You can read the book and then watch Tim Burton’s masterfully crafted movie filled with ghoulish characters.

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
It’s the ultimate Christmas fantasy; as a young boy lies awake on Christmas eve, Santa swoops by with his reindeer and takes him on an adventure to the North Pole. It really is a magical journey filled with excitement and adventure. Read the book and then watch the movie too!

The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
The story of little Teeka’s attempts to train Santa’s reindeer is not only a great guide for students on how to work well with others, but it also introduces them to northern cultures and life on the tundra. It’s a magical tale of how Teeka manages to get all the reindeer together for Santa’s big night by working with them and treating them kindly. This is a great book for older siblings.

This festive season, give your students the gift of books to help expand their seasonal libraries. Reading books is a great way for them to spend their holidays and get into the Christmas spirit.

Multitasking Teens: Are they being more efficient or just wasting time?

Ever checked to see if your student is doing their homework only to find them listening to music, chatting on their phone, checking their social media sites and doing their homework at the same time?

Multitasking is the new reality that most teens have grown up with, but does it mean that they are doing a number of tasks badly or are they actually being more efficient? The answer to this question depends largely on the individual learner and the kind of tasks they are performing.

The average student spends about seven hours a day using electronic devices and 58% say they multitask while doing homework. Studies are ongoing as to what the influence of multitasking and electronic devices will have on cognitive and social development, but there are very practical ways to measure whether multitasking has a positive or negative effect on your student’s ability to study or do their homework.

A Stanford University study found that when students switch from one task to another, it negatively affects their ability to think critically or evaluate. Multitasking students were hampered when trying to discern which information was vital and they had to reorient themselves whenever they went back to a task which actually wasted more time than multitasking saved.

A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 47% of students who spent more than 16 hours a day multitasking received lower grades (lower C’s) than students who spent less time on electronic devices. While these examples are extreme, there is evidence that the brain really isn’t very good at juggling more than one or two tasks at a time. Professor Earl Millar, an MIT neuroscientist, scanned volunteer’s brains as they multitasked and found that only one or two of the visual stimulants could activate the brain at any one given time.

This is especially true when we try to perform two tasks that use the same areas of the brain. For example if you are trying to send a tweet while writing an essay, your brain becomes overloaded and simply slows down.

Not all multitasking is bad. Some studies have shown that playing instrumental or classic music quietly in the background can actually improve concentration and higher cognitive functioning while having a number of sources of information open can help reduce the amount of time students spend on research.

If multitasking is limited to two separate tasks that require different parts of the brain, then it can be successfully accomplished. Limit the number of distractions your students have and try to encourage them to concentrate on one task at a time when they are studying or doing their homework.

Test this out for yourself! Conduct practical tests to see how your student fares when multitasking. Set out a number of similar tasks like multiple choice science questions or math problems. Get your student to do half of them while multitasking and the other half while focusing on the task at hand. Compare accuracy and time taken to establish what works best for them.