Lesson Plans

Ideas and resources

The Gift of Giving…Cards for Elderly

by 4 Comments

One idea that is simple and can get even young children involved is the gift of giving cards to the elderly at senior homes in your area during the holidays.  As I find more card ideas, I will post them.

I love this card from Family Fun… JOY!joycard

This would be great to do a mini- lesson and use the Shel Silverstein book, The Giving Tree. Allow the children to express their thoughts on the meaning of the book as well as what giving means.

Making the cards can also be fun! How about trying this 3D snowball Card?

snowballcardOr this Dreidle Card

dreidelcard

Family Fun from Disney has great ideas for 3D cards.

In a rush? How about cards in an instant? Over at Family Fun, you can print out easy templates and glue pictures.

instantcards

Free Kids Crafts has another 3D tree that I love!

christmas_tree_popup

And finally, one of my favorite websites….Artists Helping Children has a bunch of links where you are sure the find the card craft that is right for your family! Here are just a few examples from there.

christmas_gifts

fabric_shape_card_1even_more_glittery_shape_cards

Comments

  1. I absolutely LoVE the card ideas for the elderly. While I don’t have time to make cards for this Christmas, I do have boxes of new cards that I can write in and deliver tomorrow or the next day! I will begin making cards for Valentine’s Day though!!!!

  2. I have in the past worked with the elderly to make Christmas cards. They loved it. Would it be a good idea to have the kids work with the elderly to make Christmas cards?

  3. I have done cards for the elderly with kids before, but not kids and elderly together. It would depend on the temperament of the kids, I think. (And the adults, too, I guess!)

Trackbacks

Have you read?

Printable Letter Books for Preschoolers

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more. 

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs. 

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition. 

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter. 

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters. 

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again. 

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like. 

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there. 

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *