December was always a hard month to hold my students’ attention, so I leaned on Christmas read alouds they already wanted to hear. Each book below also works as a mentor text for a specific reading, writing, or grammar skill, and most of them come with a free lesson or a full unit if you want the planning done. More Christmas picture books are listed underneath.
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How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky, illustrated by S. D. Schindler
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How Santa Lost His Job by Stephen Krensky, illustrated by S. D. Schindler
Get the book on AmazonStephen Krensky’s two Santa books give Santa a whole job history. In How Santa Got His Job, Santa tries one job after another, and each one teaches him a skill he’ll need later. In How Santa Lost His Job, an elf invents a machine called the Deliverator to do Santa’s work more efficiently, and it causes plenty of problems.
In the first book, students cite text evidence for the skills Santa picked up at each job and explain why each job didn’t work out. In the second, they compare Santa to the Deliverator and explain why a person who cares beats a machine.
Both books are full of causes and effects. After students find them in the text, have them write complete sentences that hold both parts.
Cause first? Use so.“Santa tasted and sampled the food, so he gained a lot of weight.”
Effect first? Use because.“Santa lost the contest because he took time to carefully read each letter.”
Once students are comfortable, have them flip the sentence so the dependent clause comes first: “Because Santa took time to carefully read each letter, he lost the contest.”
Free cause and effect pages for both Santa books, sent to your inbox.
Get the free pagesKrensky explains the skills behind each of Santa’s jobs, so students can borrow his structure. Have them brainstorm the skills an elf needs and write a story about an elf getting hired. After the second book, students can write an informative paragraph about the qualities Santa’s substitute would need, using the Deliverator’s failures as evidence.
Krensky uses a mix of sentence types, which makes the first book a good place to study compound sentences next to sentences with compound subjects and compound predicates. The second book is full of dialogue between Santa and the elves, so it works for quotation marks and for strong verbs to replace “said.”
Free How Santa Got His Job mentor sentence lesson: one week of mentor sentence activities built on one sentence from the book, with a focus on compound sentences.
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How Santa Got His Job and How Santa Lost His Job Activities for Grades 3-5: reading, writing, and grammar activities for both books, including cause and effect, comparing characters, and dialogue.
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The Christmas Owl by Ellen Kalish and Gideon Sterer, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki
Get the book on AmazonThe Christmas Owl is based on the true story of the little owl found inside the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The book tells the story from the owl’s point of view, which gives students plenty to work with: dialogue, summarizing, theme, and strong verbs.
It also pairs well with Red and Lulu by Matt Tavares, another story about birds whose tree ends up in New York City. Students can compare how each author tells a story about the same tree.
The Christmas Owl Activities for Grades 3-5: a mentor sentence lesson, reading and writing activities, and vocabulary practice, in print and Google Slides.
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Oskar and the Eight Blessings by Richard Simon and Tanya Simon, illustrated by Mark Siegel
Get the book on AmazonOskar and the Eight Blessings follows a young refugee who arrives in New York City on the night Hanukkah and Christmas fall together. As he walks across Manhattan to find his aunt, small acts of kindness from strangers add up, which makes it a meaningful read aloud for talking about kindness in December.
Oskar and the Eight Blessings Activities for Grades 3-5: a week of lessons on summarizing, inferring, symbolism, and expository writing.
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The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Get the book on AmazonIn The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, set in the Appalachian mountains, Ruthie and her mother keep the family’s promise to bring the church’s Christmas tree while her father is away at war. Gloria Houston’s descriptive language makes it a strong model for adjectives and for longer sentences.
Free Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree mentor sentence lesson: a week of mentor sentence activities built on one sentence from the book, with a focus on adjectives and compound and complex sentences.
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Bright as a Bulb: a free holiday figurative language sort where students match similes, personification, and onomatopoeia.
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Free winter break reading challenge, with Christmas break and holiday break versions, for students to try while they’re away.
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