A collaborative project between teachers from two different school districts is sure to bring Christmas cheer to some first graders eagerly awaiting Santa Claus.
Mrs. Gotwald’s first grade class at Punxsutawney School District wrote letters to Santa asking for certain toys for Christmas, and even asking about the reindeer and wishing Santa a safe trip on Christmas Eve.
Mrs. Gotwald then approached Mrs. Bargerstock, English I teacher at Clearfield Area High School, about collaborating on the project and having her English students respond to the letters as if they were Santa.
All of Mrs. Bargerstock’s English classes participated in some way in the project, including brainstorming ideas, researching Web sites like reindeercam.com, writing the actual letters in rough draft, or typing the final response to the first graders.
The English students loved the project, discussing how “cool” it was to write back to the little kids, and finding each letter very entertaining. As one student noted: “It was a great chance to use writing lessons for something fun.”