Oh What a Christmas! by Michael Garland is a great Christmas/Santa/Holiday picture book to help teach a great writing lesson on Word Choice.
Oh What a Christmas! is absolutely stuffed with great examples of onomatopoeias and other great examples of good word choice in writing like, "Big, Fat, Jolly Red Skyrocket!"
Garland really makes the story fun and a great read aloud with his excellent word choice.
Personally, I think this would be a great 6 traits writing lesson for 3rd through 5th grade. However, it could be pushed to 6th grade as well.
If I were teaching the lesson I would start with giving a few examples of onomatopoeia like Oink, Bam, Sploosh, Splash, Boing, etc. Then see if the students can create a definition for them.
Next, I would read the book straight through once having the students listen for the onomatopoeias.
Finally, I would have the students listen to the story read again as they write onomatopoeias as they hear them. If you could read the story using a doc camera that would be even better for the students to see the book better and write the words.
As an assessment have the students write a letter to Santa (or their parents)either on what they want for Christmas or what Santa could do if his sleigh broke including 5 onomatopoeias. Though, you could use whatever writing prompt you'd like.
All in all this could be a great mini-lesson or you could incorporate the onomatopoeias into their current writing project.
Amazon had the following book description so you can have a better idea of the story line:
"When the harness to Santa's sleigh breaks mid-flight, Dasher, Dancer, and the rest of the reindeer gang fly off into the night...leaving Santa and all of his presents stranded!
Who will guide Santa's sleigh and save Christmas now?
Luckily, Santa lands by a tiny barn filled with sleepy animals. With a twinkle in his eye, Santa sees a solution and wonders how well can cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and an old hound dog fly?
OH, WHAT A CHRISTMAS! is an upbeat and humorously sweet holiday story about Santa's soon-to-be-classic wild and crazy sleigh ride one special Christmas Eve."
Happy Holiday/Christmas/Santa Writing Lesson Teaching!
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