A Christmas Carol Unit - Reader's Theater, Vocabulary, Centers, and more

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is one of my favorite stories for the holiday season! This 90-page Christmas holiday unit includes a 10-page Reader's Theater adaptation that I wrote to use in my 3rd grade classroom. It is followed by other engaging and academically rigorous activities, including several graphic organizers that are not story-specific, so they can be re-used in the future.

A Christmas Carol Reader’s Theater Play
RF.2.4, RF.3.4, RF.4.4

A Christmas Carol Vocabulary Building Activities
L.2.4, L.3.4, L.4.4
* Color Vocabulary Memory Game/Flash Cards/Fan-N-Pick
* B+W Vocabulary Memory Game/Flash Cards/Fan-N-Pick
* Foldables
* Worksheets (2 options)

A Christmas Carol Dictionary Skills Center
L.2.4e, L.3.2g, L.4.4c
* Color Version
* B+W Version
* Recording Sheet

A Christmas Carol ABC Order Center and Worksheet
Prerequisite skill for L.2.4e, L.3.2g, L.4.4c
* Color Center
* B+W Center
* Recording Sheet
* B+W Alternative Printable

A Christmas Carol Suffix Word Sort Center
RF.2.3d, RF.3.3a, RF.4.3a
* Color Center
* B+W Center
* Recording Sheet

A Christmas Carol Story Skills
RL.2.1, SL.2.1, RL.3.1,.3.2, SL.3.1, RL.4.1, RL.4.2, SL.4.1
* Story Talk
* Making Inferences
* Character and Me
* Very Important Points (3 versions)
* Story Elements Spinner
* Story Retelling Checklist

A Christmas Carol Verb Tense Sort (Past, Present Future)
L.3.1e
* Color Center
* B+W Center
* Recording Sheet and Answer Key

A Christmas Carol Word Building (5 worksheets)

A Christmas Carol Writing Prompts
W.2.1, L.2.1, L.2.2b, RL.2.3, W.3.1, L.3.1, L.3.2,W.4.1, L.4.1, L.4.2
* Dear Scrooge (Persuasive Letter)
* Character Analysis



A Christmas Carol Reader's Theater Details:
The average overall reading level is 2.3, but the reading level of individual parts varies from 0.5 through 4.9 so that readers of all levels can participate. It is something that young students as well as older students with reading deficits will enjoy!

I try to ensure all students that want to participate have parts, so I often split the Narrator part up between multiple students. I also have included non-speaking parts for when this is performed as a classroom play.

We like to perform this reader's theater as a play for other classrooms before the Christmas holiday. If you do not want to worry about the stress of a play production, it works great just as a Reader's Theater play. We still create scenery and wear costumes, but they don't have the added pressure of memorizing the lines. Many of them are so motivated that they go ahead and memorize their parts anyways! My kids absolutely love it, and I am sure yours will, too! After all, what kid doesn't enjoy a good ghost story?

The following is a list of each character in the play and its approximated Flesch-Kincaid readability level (according to Microsoft Word).

Narrator(s) (4.5)
Ebenezer Scrooge (2.6)
Fred (2.3)
Bob Cratchit (0.8)
Marley (3.7)
Ghost 1 (0.5)
Fezziwig (2.6)
Ghost 2 (2.5)
Mrs. Cratchit (2.5)
Peter (1.5)
Belinda (1.5)
Tiny Tim (3.0)
Fred’s Wife (2.0)
Party Guest 1 (0.5)
Party Guest 2 (0.5)
Townsperson 1 (1.2)
Townsperson 2 (1.2)
Child (1.0)
Ghost Choir
Ghost 3*
Young Scrooge*
Belle*

*non-speaking parts