December Writing for Primary Grades

December Writing for Primary Grades

Hey, y'all! Christmas and Hanukkah will be here before we know it. Now's the time to start prepping your December writing lessons and centers! You know I go all out for STEAM, but for everything else, I love me some low-prep lessons like these monthly writing prompts. 

For December, I wanted to be inclusive so I created several pages that are non-holiday specific. Many of our students celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah, but many others celebrate other special holidays. That's why there are several options in this set that just say "holiday" rather than Christmas or Hanukkah, like these holiday five senses pages. 

I love using five senses pages because it helps students to slow down and be a little more mindful while they're writing. 

After working on how-to writing for the last couple of months with the Halloween and Thanksgiving writing units, my students are pretty proficient at writing procedural texts. These pages on "how to catch an elf" and "how to have a cozy holiday" can be used as review then, or if you're just joining us, as introductory lessons in how-to writing. 

And our kiddos are absolutely full of opinions! The holidays are a great time for students to start getting those opinions on paper. These pages include sentence starters to help your students create strong sentences, as well as plenty of space for students to illustrate their thinking if they need and want to. 

Many of these can also be used during independent writing time/center time, like the holiday wishlist or the story writing. For the gift list, I wanted students to be thinking of how they can give to others rather than just ask for themselves. This page is meant to be used kind of like a shopping list of what students can give to their family and friends. 

For independent writing time, there are three different options of write the room pages. Students can find words on the word wall, in books they're reading, or anywhere else in the classroom. There are also Christmas and Hanukkah acrostic pages for some poetry writing practice. 

And of course, everyone loves a simple, no-prep craft! For the elf activity, students choose an elf then color it in. When their elf is finished, they describe it on the half sheet page--"My elf has a red belt and hat. It has blue socks. Etc." 

Elves and descriptions are displayed separately so that students have to read the descriptions and try to guess who's elf is who's. We do a similar activity for Halloween and the kids love it!

You can find all of these fun and engaging writing prompts in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. With 17 different writing options, you're sure to have plenty of projects to get you through December. 

I hope you found some new ideas for your classroom. I'm always adding something new so be sure to follow me on TPT so you don't miss a thing. Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon.

Stay cozy,