We teachers know that, when we haven’t fully planned the day’s lessons, our students act out! Oh, yes, it’s important to be fully planned for the day, and even more so at winter holiday time. The kids know that time off is approaching, so it’s hard for them to focus on school work.

An engaging writing activity is a great way to keep the kids focused before vacation. With the writing process approach, the students can complete a different part of the writing project each day, leading up to a sharing day on that last day of school.

The unique Thoughtful Friendly Letter to Santa perfectly fits the bill. The children love writing letters to Santa, but this particular writing activity challenges them in a new way–because they have to think about asking Santa for gifts for other people. Teachers enjoy this twist on the normal letter-writing, because it gets students to think outside of themselves:

• It’s engaging for the kids, and I love that it encourages them to think of others and giving, rather than receiving.
• This resource was perfect for getting my students excited to write a letter! This packet included everything you needed to teach all the parts of a letter while keeping the students engaged!
• Fun and an amazing additional resource for our Holidays Around the World/Christmas/Winter units, thank you so much!

The thank you note resource can be used with Thoughtful Letter to Santa or for Hanukkah.

This is also a good time of year to have our students work on a device, with digital holiday activities. Kids love seasonal activities, maybe because they are learning about the world at the same time as learning other skills.

These digital holiday versions of the popular Noun Town activity will keep them so happily focused that they won’t even know they are learning about grammar!