December writing in upper elementary can be so much fun, but too often, we fall to the same tired, old prompts. “What are you doing on winter break?” is isolating for kids who don’t have fun plans. Prompts about the weather are confusing for children who live in warm climates. Some prompts focus just on coloring and crafting without developing writing skills or using the writing process. Get your students excited about winter writing with these engaging December writing activities for upper elementary that foster creativity and writing skills!
Ugly Christmas Sweater Descriptive and Persuasive Writing
Ugly Christmas (or wintertime) sweaters are a time honored tradition, especially in schools. We often have teachers (and students) dress up in the most hideously designed sweater (Christmas-themed or not). I like to pretend that it’s really a normal part of my wardrobe rotation. My students always find that amusing although they don’t usually believe me!
Bring the magic of the ugly sweater tradition to your winter writing. With the ugly Christmas sweater writing and craft, your students will design their own ugly sweater with ready-to-go templates while using elements of descriptive and persuasive writing to convince readers that their sweater is the best. The ultimate goal is to win the ugly sweater contest! Their sweaters do not have to be winter themed. There are so many opportunities for inspired, creative designs, especially for your emerging young artists. Complete with planning and thinking maps, this activity is the perfect way to keep your creative learners engaged this winter! It’s also a perfect completed craft to send home to share with parents before the winter break.
Gumdrop Buttons Argumentative Writing
Gingerbread cookies are a fun holiday treat. Often, children will leave these cute gingerbread men and women out for Santa Clause. In this argumentative writing activity, your students will write from the perspective of their gingerbread cookie. Their goal is to persuade Santa not to eat them. “Not my gumdrop buttons” becomes a plea as your students will create their gingerbread paper craft, brainstorm, and plan what other snacks Santa can have instead.
Perfect for persuasive or argumentative writing skills, this engaging ”Not My Gumpdrops” winter promptwill have your students giggling with delight as they imagine themselves as gingerbread cookies.
Winter Emoji Writing
Practicing sentence structure and improving sentence fluency can seem tedious and boring with normal sentence fixers. This winter emoji writing activity will have your students creating and expanding amazing sentences! Using holiday emoji dice, your students will roll their way into fun sentence building. Create original sentences or expand on existing simple sentences. Use the planning template to help organize the who, where, what, when, and why of sentences and stories. This is a fantastic small group activity. Your students can build sentences and put them together to form fun, witty stories.
These engaging December writing activities for upper elementary will have your students ready for the holidays. From persuasive prompts to descriptive flavor, these activities incorporate crafts and writing skills all in one bunch! Try these fun activities this season with your students!
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