Santa Claus

Letters to Santa

Timeline for Letters to Santa

Note: This is an EXAMPLE timeline and the dates are only approximate. Actual dates should be established to work around weekends and school holidays.

Key benchmarks or deadlines are indicated in red

Tue, 11-Oct  -  Sun, 13-Nov 2024

Register for Letters to Santa:
Review the Call for Collaborationwhich announced this project.

Mon, 07-Nov  -  Tue, 08-Nov 2024

Preliminary List of Participants:
Project Coordinator will send you a list of all participants registered to date 2024

Wed, 09-Nov  -  Fri, 11-Nov 2024

Contact your Partner:
We will send you complete contact information about your partner school.

As soon as you receive this information, send off an email to your partner teacher.

Then, with your partner teacher, review this suggested timeline and adjust the dates to suit your respective calendars and students.

As you can see, there is a short time between the Thanksgiving and Winter vacations. That is why it is important, especially for novice networkers, to make contact and practice the file transfer procedures the first few weeks of November.

This short time frame makes it imperative that primary students get their letters to Santa finished and sent as early as possible. However, you and your partner school are free to adjust this suggested timeline to meet your own calendar needs.
If you have any concerns about your partner assignment, send email as soon as possible to the project coordinator.

Mon, 14-Nov  -  Fri, 18-Nov 2024

Pre-writing activities:
Review the lesson plan materials to prepare your students to write their respective letters. Review the sample correspondence to see how prior classes have conducted this project.

Mon, 14-Nov  -  Wed, 23-Nov 2024

Practice Letters TO/FROM Santa: Review the project guidelines for writing, assembling and emailing letters TO Santa (primary class) and FROM Santa (secondary class). Then Practice exchanging sample Santa Letter emails with your partner teacher. Exchange best postal addresses in the event that email fails at the last minute.

Thu, 24-Nov  -  Fri, 25-Nov 2024

U.S. Holiday - Thanksgiving:

Wed, 23-Nov  -  Sat, 03-Dec 2024

Send Letters To Santa:
Primary students send letters to santa via email. Remember that these are a suggested dates. You and your partner teacher should agree upon dates for exchange that meets both of your needs.

Mon, 05-Dec  -  Fri, 09-Dec 2024

Santa's Workshop:
Upper grade students work on replies "from Santa"

Sat, 10-Dec  -  Wed, 14-Dec 2024

Send Santa's Replies:
Upper grade students send Santa's replies via email

Wed, 14-Dec  -  Thu, 06-Jan 2024

Feedback:
Primary teachers: send feedback to your upper grade partner class about the impact of this project on your students. Provide anecdotes and details that will help them see your students reading Santa's letters. Take some digital pictures and email them to your parter class. Secondary teachers: Have your students write to the primary teacher about their experience "acting Santa."