Christmas Thank You Cards

It is the time of year for writing Christmas thank you cards for all of those wonderful Christmas presents you and your children have received. However, if you are anything like me you put off writing your thank you cards as long as possible and then feel guilty about sending them so late.

So this year I thought I would turn this chore into a fun activity and involve my 3 year old and 5 year old in producing the cards. Both children enjoyed gluing paper letters cut out from left over Christmas wrapping paper to form the words 'Thank You' on the front of the cards. This activity also provided lots of opportunities to practise letter recognition and learn about sounds in words.

Step 1

Collect together your materials. Firstly you will need some wrapping paper. I used Christmas wrapping paper, since these are thank you cards for Christmas presents, but you could use any type to match the occasion. The thicker the wrapping paper the better, otherwise it may rip when being glued. You also need scissors, glue, a pencil and some blank cards or blank paper. I used magnetic letters to draw around, but you could just write out your own letters if you prefer.

Step 2

Fold a large piece of wrapping paper over and over into a thin strip. The number of folds depends on how many cards you want to decorate. I wanted to decorate four cards so I folded the paper over eight times. You need twice as many folds as cards, since half of the letters will be back-to-front and will need to be discarded. Draw around the magnetic letters which make up the words 'thank you' on the top fold (or scribe your own letters). Cut out the letters, putting those which are the right way round in a small container.

Step 3

First ask your child to sort the paper letters in the container into piles of the same letter. If you have used the magnetic letters as a template, younger children can match each of the paper letters to its magnetic letter. Once sorted, organise the letters into piles so each pile contained all the letters needed for one card.

Step 4

Ask your child to find a 't' in the pile of letters for the first card and glue this onto the card. Then ask them to find and stick an 'h' on the card. Point out that the 't' and 'h' together make the sound /th/, which is the beginning of the word 'thank'. You could also ask them to think of other words beginning with the sound /th/. Continue until they have stuck all of the letters in the words 'thank you'. As your child sticks down a letter think of words beginning or ending with that letter. Talk about the gap between 'thank' and 'you' which indicates that they are two separate words.

Step 5

Older children can now write a note inside the card. Younger children could draw a picture, or stick a photo of themselves inside the card. Or, of course, you could now be inspired to write a thank you note of your very own inside!

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