A “How To,” Christmas Freebie……

Our writing skill for the week was writing an explanatory paragraph.  In the past, I have done “How to Make S’mores,” but we already did that this year with our Earth’s Layers S’mores.  I have done, “How to Blow a Bubble,” which I love but so did a second grade teacher on my campus last year and I have 7 of her former kiddos.  So, I was trying to find a fun idea that we could write directions for.  I finally came up with this……

 

I saw a few things online, but of course I had to make it my own with this adorable scrappin doodle reindeer and a prewriting foldable! ( I LOVE foldables!)

Click on the pic above to download it for FREE!

I wanted my students to experience actually wrapping a gift before they tried writing directions for doing it.   I wanted it to be an authentic experience.  I also remembered reading blog posts last year about “Random Acts of Christmas Kindness,” so I thought why not combine the ideas and have them wrap a gift to give away.  The big question became how to get gifts for them to wrap.

I have this amazing family this year and they are always asking what I need help with and if I need any supplies for my classroom (I am so very blessed!).  They also happen to own a candy company here in town and they make the best candies!  So, I emailed my rather large request and was so excited when I got a yes back!  Thank you so much Cerreta’s for supporting our learning!

On Monday afternoon as we packed to go home I left my kiddos with this…..”Tomorrow we will begin something fun and exciting in writing….it involves candy and wrapping paper.  Be here tomorrow if you want to find out about it!”  They hate when I do that to them, but they are always so excited to come to school the next day! 

We began our writing time the next day by wrapping our gifts.  They were a little bummed to learn that the yummy Cerreta’s candy was not for them but they were so excited about the “Random Acts of Christmas Kindness,” idea. 

These are our cute little Cerreta’s snowman boxes with our yummy chocolates inside.

After wrapping the gifts, we taped the “Random Acts of Kindness,” note to the front.  The notes are included in the FREE download of my “How to Wrap a Present,” pack.  Then we brainstormed people that we could share our gift with.  They came back to school the next day so excited to share with us who they gave their present to.  Our gifts were given away to a bus driver, a police officer, a worker at Chick-Fil-A, the lady working the checkout lane at the grocery store, a neighbor brand new to the neighborhood and the list goes on!  They were so excited to be able to spread some Christmas cheer.

We then used the foldables we made to write down all of the steps that we took to wrap our present.  The last step was taking those steps and writing them in paragraph form.  I have to say that I think the lesson was a hit, they are still talking about it!  And, I think that some moms will have more help wrapping gifts this year now that they are “experts,” at it!