Dear Santa: Harnessing the magic of the holidays to encourage pre-literacy skills (free printable)

I love to make the holidays magical. When the air gets a little nippy (or, in the case of Florida, when stores start blasting Bing Crosby’s White Christmas over the loud speakers to convince everyone that ‘tis the season) I start to get all excited for the festive fun.

The other thing I’ve been all excited about this fall is advocating for young readers and pre-readers. The holidays can be riddled with quite a few traps in the form of “developmental” toys that make hefty promises about teaching preschoolers and even toddlers to read. Be suspicious. Be very suspicious. In addition, a great mom I know recently came across an article claiming to know the “real key” to literacy in the form of invented spelling (a fancy way of saying that children making up their own spellings of words leads to great reading skills down the road). That isn't EXACTLY false but also not helpful in terms of how young children should be spending their time. The article had me clambering up on my soapbox as quickly as I could. My message? Keep it simple. Talk with your children. Play with them. Read to them. That is the trifecta for development.

That said, we know that it IS useful for children to see “literacy artifacts” in their world – those everyday items that show the power of the written word. Shopping lists, recipes, calendars, signs in elevators and doctor’s offices, street signs, maps. Watching parents pen a postcard, refer to a to-do list, or pay a bill (with a checkbook if you still remember how to write a check!) shows children that written words have their own special magic.

So I realized: what better way to teach children about the power of the written word than writing a letter to the Man With the Bag with a list of their holiday wishes? My search engine revealed plenty of free printable Dear Santa letters but none quite fit the bill. We’d already selected five items for each of their lists so I wanted one that had five spots. I also wanted a spot for a drawing given that my older two are still preschoolers. This lovely Santa Letter Writing Kit at Larissa Another Day has a darling free printable that ALMOST did it for me. But my perfectionist streak took over. We’ve been talking a lot about gratitude in our house this month and I wanted to incorporate that. I also wanted the graphics to fill the whole page for no other reason than that it feels more beautiful to me. So, I took to my laptop to put together my dream Santa letter and here it is:

We worked on them today and it was exciting to see the kids drawing and attempting to write (letter-like scribbles are a common phase in the preschool years – you can see Remy’s attempt to write his name and label his “Lightning McQueen” drawing with what looks like a G and a P. The other circular shapes are Lightning’s four wheels). So there you have it – no drilling or structured practice required. We worked on something the kids found delightful and they chose to work on pre-writing skills independently. A win all around.

Tomorrow we are meeting the Big Guy and R & G are excited to hand-deliver their letters. Of course I couldn’t help but scan copies for myself to look back on in years to come! I’m already making tweaks for next year in my mind. What would YOUR dream Santa letter look like? Let me know in the comments! And have the happiest holiday season.

Warmly,

Cortney and crew

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#prewriting #literacy #printable #holidayactivities