by Kaley Chick
| When I saw this creative project on Instagram, I reached out to the_gifted_chick, GT teacher Kaley Chick, and she graciously agreed to give us all the details in a guest blog post. Kaley is the PACE instructor for the gifted program with Minot Public Schools in Minot, ND, where she works with gifted students from the thirteen elementary schools. Kaley’s experience prior to working in GT education includes teaching Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, and 5th grades and serving as an instructional coach in her district. Thank you for generously sharing this, Kaley! |
As the holidays approached in my classroom, I was looking for a creative way to put a spin on traditional holiday letter writing. My fifth graders always appreciate a project or a lesson with a bit of an edge, and with that, the “Dear Santa, I can explain…” project was born.
We started the lesson with some productive thinking and generated a list of well-known antagonists, villains, and misunderstood characters from classic literature, movies, comics, and pop-culture. From there, students selected a character to take on for the project.
Once students selected a character, they listed all of the negative traits associated with that character on a sticky note. Next, they had to find a way to reframe their thinking to turn all of the negative traits into positive traits. This step helped them significantly when they had to explain and justify their wrong-doings to Santa.
After negative traits were transformed into positive traits, students were ready to begin their rough drafts. A graphic organizer helped guide them in their persuasive letter writing. The letters were written in first-person narrative, with students writing as the antagonists.
The letters consisted of three main paragraphs:
- An introduction to Santa explaining why the character was famous (infamous)
- An explanation as to why the character was not responsible for what people accused him/her of doing
- A Christmas wish (present) that he/she would like Santa to bring along with supporting reasons why the gift would be ideal
When their rough drafts were completed, students typed their letters and used a peer editing and review process to look for grammatical mistakes and ensure that all three required letter elements were present.
Students then created construction paper collages (see video sample below) to depict their villains. They were permitted to use Chromebooks to find character likenesses, but all of the art was done freehand. Here are some sample letters and collages of antagonists, among them Captain Hook, Darth Vader, Cruella de Vil, and The Grinch.
Even though I do not give students grades in my program, I still recognize the the need for feedback. Student work was evaluated using a single-point rubric.
The projects have been the hit of our hallway this holiday season! Students and teachers alike have stopped to marvel at their artistic representations and persuasive letter writing!
| Kaley regularly shares student work and awesome project ideas on Instagram, so follow the_gifted_chick and check out her website. If you are new to this site, check out the 4-minute video tour to learn more! |
