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!)

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Celebrate Inventor’s Day by Learning about Inventors

Several countries have a day set aside to honor and recognize their inventors, but Nov. 9 is a special one that’s known as Tag der Erfinder in German. It’s celebrated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and it falls on Nov. 9 because that’s the birthday of Hedy Lamarr. 

Hedy Lamarr is widely known as an actress but there’s a lot more to her story. You can get a little of it geared to little kids in the Little People, Big Dreams book Hedy Lamarr (32 pages, hardcover, published 2023 by Frances Lincoln Childrens Books, suggested retail price $15.99).

The book explores her birth in Austria and how she spent time when she was young coming up with inventions. She became an actress, married an arms dealer, made her escape to America and became an actress again. 

But she also helped develop a frequency-hopping signal device for airplanes that was used by the Americans and their allies during World War II. That technology became the basis for wireless technology such as wifi and GPS. 

While Inventor’s Day is a great time to learn about Hedy Lamarr, you can take this opportunity to check out books and do little studies on lots of different inventors. If there’s an inventor or an invention your child is particularly interested in, that’s a great place to start. It’s fun to think about all the things we use every day that didn’t always exist; someone had to invent them!

For a start here at Craft Gossip you can learn more about Garrett Morgan, who invented traffic lights; Maria Oroso, who developed a clay oven that could cook food without electricity; and more female inventors and scientists.

And for more general inventors’ fun, check out this inventors word search from Fun Findery (and another from Let’s Do Puzzles) or take a quiz on inventors and their inventions from Flanders Family Home Life. 

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