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Holiday Writing Activity - The Annual Family Letter

By Lily Iatridis  December 17, 2014

Annual Family LetterDo you have a hard time getting your kids to focus on school work this time of year? If yes, then it's time to turn work into play with a writing project the kids will enjoy.

Write an annual family letter. Don't you love getting them in the mail from family and friends? Usually they're written by an adult in the family, but with a few twists, you can make the annual family letter an activity where everyone participates and has a great time. 

Here's what I recommend:

1. Gather the kids and go though the year's family photos. Let everyone pick out a favorite, even if it's not yours. Kids will take ownership and get engaged if they're given a degree of choice in a project.

2. Loosely plan what everyone's going to write so nobody writes about the same thing. For example, every child can pick a photo in the letter to tell a story about, or everyone in the family can pick a superlative such as best ___ , most likely to ___.

3. Encourage the kids to be descriptive in their writing with more detail, but don't clean up their errors too much. Make sure each kids' entry remains in their own voice.

4. Spice up the structure. The template to the right is pretty bland, but you can spice it up with interesting fonts, creative titles and layout. Allow the kids to take part in the decisionmaking here, even if it means your annual letter isn't perfect. Your friends and extended family will love reading it!

Have fun with this activity, and don't forget to mail us one too. :)

 

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