I don't know about you, but I am tired.
Every year I make all of these grand plans to transform my classroom into a version of Santa's Workshop with all of my lessons, activities, and themes centered on the holidays. Picture the kind of classroom that looks like it could be in a Hallmark movie...(Can you see it?).
I imagine taking out all of my favorite holiday-themed books...my students listening to the stories with their little chins in their hands enraptured by the magic of the season being told by some of our favorite authors. Jan Brett, Dr. Seuss, Chris Van Allsburg, Matt Haig, J.K. Rowling, and (my favorite Christmas book of all time) Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera.
We have meaningful conversations about the books' themes, the joys in our lives and the things to be celebrated, write letters to Santa Claus, calculate the number of ornaments on the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, do STEM challenges like making a miniature Christmas tree whirl around in circles using a battery...
Yeah. Nope.
I shoot for the moon and land somewhere in the reality of the hustle and bustle of a month of school that is over in 2 and a half weeks because of the holiday break. But, this year I wanted to create writing activities that were both fun for my students and simple for me to implement.
So, I created a December Narrative Writing Journal that could be pre-made and worked on throughout the weeks leading up to winter break.
This journal is perfect. It solved all my problems. I used the National Calendar to inspire the writing prompts using a few of the silly (but real!) holidays that happen in December?
Did you know that there is a National Peppermint Bark Day? Yep. It was December 1st. Or, National Bubble Bath Party Day? That one is on December 5th.
So, I decided on a four different days in December and created writing prompts out of them. I tried to choose ones that I thought all students would be able to write about regardless of faith or whether or not they celebrate the traditional December holidays like Christmas, Hanukah, or Kwanza.
I picked:
December 5th - Day of the Ninja
December 8th - Pretend To Be a Time Traveler Day
December 12th - Gingerbread House Day
December 17th - Underdog Day
My imagination ran wild thinking of all of the stories that could come from those special days as well as the books that might be fun to read as a way to get my kiddos excited to write. The Ninjabread Man by CJ Leigh, any and all of the Gingerbread Baby, Man, Girl, Cowboy, etc. stories, and the ways that those tales might lend themselves to being a time traveler, a ninja, or an underdog.
Then, I added my own twist on the traditional narrative "plot diagram" organizer by creating my own original acronym to help the kids to remember the parts to their stories. S.E.N.D. (I should probably trademark it...)
Each writing page in the journal has a S.E.N.D. prewriting organizer, drafting space, and a genre and conventions specific rubric. For me, adding these was important to encourage independence in my students. I also made a lined (and unlined) full page versions for kids who need more writing space.
This pack is available in lined and unlined versions as well as color, black & white, AND on Google Slides for anyone who prefers to assign tasks virtually. I also included a teacher exemplar for you to use when introducing narrative writing to your students and an anchor chart of S.E.N.D. that can be posted in your room or copied for each student to keep in their writing journal.
Click here OR on the pictures to head over to TpT to grab this pack for yourself.
Click on the arrow to scroll through the thumbnails to see more!
Happy writing!
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