With the holidays here, I wanted to mention all the meaningful writing activities that you can engage your students in.
Not that essay writing and curricula are not meaningful, but that students more so love to write for a real occasion.
For elementary age (and this is particularly for homeschoolers, but also possible in schools), get them involved in writing letters of thanks, both thanks for gifts they have received, but possibly also notes of thanks around this season of Thanksgiving–notes that are ‘out of the blue’ pleasant surprises to persons whom they are grateful to. These should be hand written, on paper, and sent in the mail, in my opinion. Email and text are handy communications devices, but hand written letters in the mail are rarer, more treasured, and they add a level of solemnity to the thank you that a text message over the phone just cannot convey.
It is a mother’s life long struggle (at least it was mine) to teach her kids to write notes of thanks for gifts received on birthdays and at Christmas. I recommend incorporating some of that writing in your early writing assignments when you start up after Christmas. — Letter writing is a bit of a lost art, and thank you cards no less so.
I don’t think the thank yous need to be on a formal card, necessarily. A neatly written letter on white paper, neatly addressed on the front of the envelope looks tactful and thoughtful.
Here are a couple of links to ponderings on the lost art of letter writing.
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2012/oct/23/lost-art-letter-writing
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/20/245052225/the-art-of-letter-writing-isnt-lost-on-these-scribblers
We don’t have to live in the 19th century to be thankful and thoughtful towards other people.