The 12 Days of Christmas Grammar Challenge

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas music. I'm such a freak about it that yes, I confess, I've even secretly listened to it as early as August and sometimes into late January. But Thanksgiving signals the official okay that Christmas music is acceptable, so I've been uploading Christmas music onto my ipod. Thanks to Amanda, I've learned how to download songs from iTunes onto my computer and then to my ipod. (Hey, Amanda, I still need help putting the songs from cds I already have onto my ipod. Call me if you see this over the Thanksgiving weekend. :) As I sit here writing this, I'm listening to some of my favorites. My brother-in-law Greg is not a big fan of the "whiney Christmas songs" so he's given me his Bose headset to listen, sparing him from the music which is okay since I'm afterall a guest in my sister and his house this holiday. We arrived tonight to kick off our Thanksgiving with our annual roasted oysters. Yummy, nothing better on a cold November night than a fresh oyster on a saltine cracker topped with a jalapeno and some of my dad's delicious sauce. But I digress. Back to the grammar idea.

For several past years, I've had the idea of designing a mini unit on troublesome grammar issues using traditional Christmas carols and holiday songs. For instance, the rule about lie versus lay tangles up many a student, so why not design a game that features the carol "O, Little Town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie . . ." and use it during the month of December? I've decided to make this idea a reality this year, so I'm spending this weekend (at least a portion of it between the turkey meal, the family movie outing and the holiday shopping) working out the details of this unit so that I can start it next week with my students. I'm making a collection of the songs I'll use and figuring which grammatical concepts I'll teach/review with each one. If it turns out well, I'll post the results here. Happy Turkey Day, folks! Enjoy your time with families. And sing a few holiday tunes. It's good for you. :)