This is a basic holiday activity where students are asked, in PART ONE, to come up with words that start the letters in either "Santa Claus" or "Merry Christmas." In PART TWO, as an extension activity, students use those words to create either a POEM or a SHORT STORY. (For younger students, there is also an ILLUSTRATION extension activity, where they illustrate their word list.)

I have included two levels of English activities here, so you can differentiate and scaffold student learning to meet their needs. As such, I have used this for Grade 4 through Grade 8.

What I like about this activity is that it takes the excitement for the holidays and channels it into a CREATIVE WRITING prompt.

For older students, I have them create lists of words that are not holiday related. This creates a more varied poem or short story. Even if the generated wordlist is not holiday-themed, I will often set parameters on their creative writing pieces that either must be (or must not be) about the holidays. As per Kevin Gallagher, I find that providing students with creative writing boundaries (or "writing restraints") promotes better writing, as students are more concerned about the limits than they are with the "writer's block" that comes with too much writing topic freedom.

The resource is click-and-print ready to go! As such, this is also a great activity for a substitute teachers, supply teachers, or TTOCs (Teacher Teaching On Call)!