The festive season is here and one of the traditions we have at Christmas is to send Christmas cards and letters to family and friends.
This is a great opportunity to engage with parents to see how they will be celebrating Christmas, and to let them know what the children will be doing over the next few weeks.
Circle Time
Children can share their experiences of posting cards and letters, so start the discussion with a few open ended questions and leave time for them to think and respond. Or you might want to read a story first – The Jolly Christmas Postman – to start the conversation.
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Have you ever received a card or a letter? When? Why?
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How do we send a card or a letter?
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Maybe we could make some cards here?
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Who will we give or send the card to and how?
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Does anyone have relatives who live far away?
Books and Stories
The following books may provide some inspiration:
The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet & Allen Ahlberg It’s Christmas Eve and the Jolly Postman is delivering greetings to various fairy-tale characters – there’s a card for Baby Bear, a game appropriately called ‘Beware’ for Red Riding Hood from Mr Wolf, a get-well jigsaw for hospitalised Humpty Dumpty and three more surprise envelopes.
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The Very Smiley Snowman
by Jack Tickle ‘Come and join these merry friends, they’re full of Christmas Cheer. Popping up to greet you at their favourite time of year!’ |
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A Special delivery for Christmas by John Cunliffe Join Postman Pat and Jess on a Christmas special delivery mission. Readers can work the forklift, use Ben’s computer, peep inside the delivery van, zoom around on the motorbike and even fly Postman Pat’s helicopter! With sturdy flaps to open, tabs to pull and a pop-up surprise at the end, children will love helping Postman Pat and Jess with this important delivery
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Learning story
Little Friends Playgroup in Swords won the Innovation in Community Involvement award for the innovative approach they took in establishing links with the wider community and making it meaningful for the children. Following some children’s interest in ice cream, delivery vans, postman pat, doctors, and dentists they carried out a variety of projects where these elements were explored. Within the setting they children made trips to the local store as they researched about ice cream, they posted letters to themselves to meet the local postman, they ordered fruit online from their local supermarket so they could check out the delivery van.
Informal chats with Parents
Talk with the parents and check in with them and see how they will be celebrating the upcoming festive season.
Let the parents know about the activities and themes that the children will be exploring over the coming days.They may be willing to lend a hand or provide recyclables that can be used in activities such as making cards, or provide photographs to use on the cards.They might like to write a letter to their child for christmas to read on Christmas day.
Building on Interests – Activities emerging from discussions
Talking with and listening to children provides us adults with a window of opportunity to understand what and how they are thinking. In listening to the children’s ideas and experiences a whole range of exciting possibilities’ may emerge. The challenge is to build on the children’s points of interest.
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These are only suggestions and no doubt children will come up with a range of ideas from their own experiences on sending good wishes through a letter or email. Building on children’s interests shows respect for their ideas and allows us as practitioners to extend their themes across the curriculum.
Links to Aistear
These activities that emerge from talking to children can be documented and linked to the themes of Aistear by using a simple template:
We have also provided an Aistear template that you might like to use for your own service – Aistear blank template
There are also links on this page to Aistear – the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework.