Letters to Santa |
You can create your own call for collaboration by copying and modifying the example below and sending it via email to teachers you know who might be interested in being your partner for a Santa Letters exchange
(NOTE: this is an example, and all dates iare approximate only. You would adjust the dates to meet your own needs.Subject: [HILITES] Ages 5-17 Letters to Santa - Since 1985 Date: 8/01/2024 7:40 PM To: gsn-hilites-list@topica.com SEND REPLIES, questions, comments to santa@globalschoolnet.org BASIC PROJECT INFORMATION ------------------------- PROJECT TITLE: -- Letters to Santa PROJECT BEGIN and END DATES: -- 10/12/2024 to 12/15/2024 NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS: -- no limit AGE RANGE: -- 5 to 17 years TARGET AUDIENCE: -- Anyone PROJECT SUMMARY: -- This letter exchange, pairing primary with older students, is one of the oldest and most successful projects. Best of all, it is simple: * Primary students write email letters to Santa. * Secondary students reply, pretending to be Santa. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PROJECT DETAILS --------------- PROJECT LEVEL: -- Basic Project CURRICULUM AREAS: -- Language TECHNOLOGIES USED: -- Email, List server COLLABORATION STYLES: -- Information Exchange; Impersonation FULL PROJECT DESCRIPTION: -- The "Letters to Santa Claus" activity is not a new one. Teachers and parents have always helped children write to Santa. This bearded, fat, jolly, red-suited folkloric old man sometimes represents different things to different people. But coming as he does in the dead of winter, he seems mostly to symbolize hope. This lesson is based on the experiences of teachers who have used email to send letters to and from Santa in projects since 1985. It is a lesson that is especially well-designed for the newcomer to Internet-working, yet one that more advanced teachers and their students enjoy using every year. The project concept is a simple one: When you register to participate, we match you up with another class with whom you exchange letters... one primary class (ages 5-8 years), one older class (ages 12-17). Students in the primary class write letters to Santa using a word processor. They send their letters via electronic mail to their partner class. Students in the older class write replies to each primary letter and send them back via email. Over the past few years this project has mushroomed. Thousands of classes have exchanged countless letters to and from Santa. Included in the program have been: bilingual communicatively handicapped deaf and hard of hearing gifted continuation opportunity OBJECTIVES: -- Improve Student Skills: * Academically The project strengthens students' writing. Primary students want their letter to Santa to be "just right", and secondary students feel such a high degree of responsibility to the task that they also want their work to be their best. Students gladly write, edit, revise and perfect their letters. They even get quite a bit of practice reading, because they want to read each others letters and compare the contents. * Socially One of the most noteworthy results of this project is the cooperative mode that the students seem automatically to slide into so effortlessly. They want to help each other, to compare what they have written with what others in the class have done. The desire to cooperate is obvious, natural and strong. * Technically In video interviews taken after they have completed the project, students state that they feel more comfortable using the computer keyboard and the word-processing program. They are also intrigued and interested in learning about electronic transfer of information. PROJECT URL: -- http://www.globalschoolnet.org/gsnsanta PROJECT SPONSOR: -- Global SchoolNet Foundation ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PROJECT REGISTRATION INFORMATION -------------------------------- REGISTRATION DATES: -- 09/01/2024 to 10/31/2024 REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS: -- Complete project materials and guidelines are at http://www.globalschoolnet.org/gsnpr. Please PRE-REGISTER by sending email NOW to santa@globalschoolnet.org. We'll reply with a complete timeline and further instructions. -----------------------------------------------------------------------