When Thanksgiving is over, many children start thinking about the presents they want Santa to bring them at Christmas time. For teachers this presents a wonderful opportunity for an authentic writing activity—a letter to Santa. For years, I had my students write Dear Santa letters, but I hated encouraging that “gimme” attitude in children, so one year I decided to try something different.

Instead of the typical Dear Santa activity, I created a letter-writing lesson that would encourage thoughtfulness of others: Students ask Santa to bring a present to someone other than themselves. That someone could be a sibling, parent, relative, friend, or even a group of people.

I guess this activity isn’t truly authentic, because kids wouldn’t naturally think this way. We parents and teachers know that children think the world revolves around them. After all, they’re kids! For those children who have trouble thinking about what would benefit others, I included a worksheet for practicing thinking of others. But, once they completed this total writing activity, most of my students felt proud of themselves for being kind.

After finding that this activity was inspiring to students, I added a thank you note activity—a practical lesson with lifelong benefits! Teaching children how to be thankful helps them develop a habit of gratitude and appreciation of others. The thank you note is a special kind of friendly letter and includes all the parts of a friendly letter. Both 5-day lesson plans utilize the typical writing process structure: planning, 1st draft, revision, final draft, and sharing.

I’ve bundled the two letter-writing activities together. Elements in the bundled set include:

• graphic organizers
• worksheets
• answer keys
• rubrics
• sentence strips
• sample letters with revisions
• posters
• student checklists
• writing paper
• envelopes
• thank you note cards (Christmas and Hanukkah)
• word cards

As a teacher, it feels good to nurture social skills and build character while teaching writing at the same time.