Overview

The purpose of Christmas Card Exchange Project is to have students create physical holiday cards or letters for other participating students around the world. The project aims at helping students become global citizens by studying the culture and traditions of and interacting with students from partner countries.

Important: Please read the FAQs thoroughly before signing up.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE CHRISTMAS CARD EXCHANGE PROJECT?

Students from 8 -16 years old who are in primary, middle or high school.

HOW SHOULD THE STUDENTS MAKE THE CARDS?

Students can be as creative as they’d like. There is no “set” size for cards so students can use their best judgment. They can personally design and decorate cards by drawing, coloring, or painting. Construction paper, cardboard, markers, crayons, colored pencils, ribbon, etc., are all great to help make the card as special as possible.

Please keep postage in mind when deciding about the card size to save money. Based on experience, an 8.5″ x 11″ (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm) sheet of paper folded 2 ways to a total size of 4.25″ x 5″ (11.43 cm x 12.7 cm) works perfectly.

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ALSO READ: CREATIVE HALLOWEEN CLASSROOM GAMES & ACTIVITIES

WHAT SHOULD STUDENTS WRITE IN THE CARDS?

Students may explain their own culture and Christmas traditions and other topics such as traditional Christmas dishes, attractions and sights of the country. The goal is to bring a bit of holiday cheer to their peers so it is important to be cheerful and respectful. Be sure to include holiday greetings!

SOME OF MY STUDENTS DON’T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS, CAN THEY STILL JOIN?

They can still participate, of course! You may ask them to write letters or make a card based on his/her culture’s most important holiday!

CAN THE STUDENTS USE CHRISTMAS CARDS PURCHASED FROM A STORE?

Yes. Store-bought cards are great for Christmas Card Exchange Project. However, teacher-advisers should encourage students to add some artistic flair by drawing on the inside of the card or using color to brighten up the presentation.

HOW MANY CARDS SHOULD WE SEND?

Based on the final list of participants, the project facilitator (yours truly) will create groups of four based on age levels of the students and/or your school location. So, that means you will have 3 partner schools/countries.

You should send a minimum of 15 Christmas cards to each of your partner school. If you do the math, that’s a total of 45 Christmas cards at the very least. If you only have a few students, you may ask each student to create two or three Christmas cards in order to meet the requirement.

Can you send more than 15 cards to each of the school in your group? Absolutely! The more, the merrier!

HOW MUCH IS POSTAGE FOR SENDING CARDS ABROAD?

The teacher should check local prices as costs vary from country to country. Some schools cover the cost but students may do a fundraising activity to pay for the materials and postage.

Before you sign up for this project, please make sure that you will be able to cover the cost of sending the parcels to 3 different locations. In our previous projects, some teachers sent digital cards instead for lack of budget. Please don’t get me wrong but this is highly discouraged as it kind of forfeits the purpose of this project which is to “create and send physical cards to partner schools”.

WHEN IS THE TARGET DATE FOR SENDING THE CARDS?

Ideal time would be by the end of November so that cards could make it to the other countries before Christmas break. Teacher should check local post office for types and speed of delivery.

WHAT OTHER POSSIBLE CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES CAN WE DO WITH THIS PROJECT?

The following activities are optional. Teachers should talk in their groups what extra activities they want to do, or other goals they want to achieve.

Suggested Date	Suggested Activities
November 1 – 30	Students prepare Christmas cards and may organize fundraising activities.
November 1 – 15	Concurrently, students send information about their school, country, cultural activities, recipes and photos related to their celebrations in December through PowerPoint presentations.
November 14 – 30	Concurrently, students may post messages to each other in a forum or online groups such as Edmodo or Schoology; and ask questions about their new friends in the partner schools. Teachers may arrange video conference with partners via skype.
December 1 – 30	Students receive cards from other countries and prepare display in home school or classroom.

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SUMMARY

• Registration (ends October 25, 2019). See Registration form below.
• Receive contact details and info of partner schools by November 2, 2019 (I need at least a week to sort things out).
• Collaborate. Talk to your assigned group. Send each other emails right away. Say hi! Plan extra activities. The success of the project is communication.
• Inform students about the project and partner countries.
• Make the cards.
• Prepare and send PowerPoint presentation; communicate online with peers (if your group decide to do these).
• Send the handmade cards to your partner schools by post.
• Receive Christmas Cards from partner schools.
• Show/discuss cards with students.
• Make exhibition at your school

HOW TO JOIN THE CHRISTMAS CARD EXCHANGE PROJECT?

REGISTRATION FOR THE HOLIDAY CARD EXCHANGE 2019 IS NOW CLOSED.

GROUPS WILL BE ANNOUNCED NOVEMBER 5TH

• Click here to see group list for 2017 (1184 downloads)
• Click here to see group list for 2018 (993 downloads)

IMPORTANT

If you have registered already, you should have received a confirmation email from me within 72 hours. Please check your spam folder. If not, it is a must that you register again using a valid email address.

Last minute registrants who did not receive confirmation email 3 days after the deadline may consider registration unsuccessful. Thank you!

Disclaimer:

• I am just a facilitator of this project. I will be in one or two groups only as I only have 2 classes which can only make so many cards.
• Once you received your group details, I will be out of the equation. I can still offer support though. I might also send follow up emails to check how’s the project going in your group.
• I will try my best to make sure that all participating teachers are reliable and team players. However, if they go M.I.A (meaning they don’t reply to your emails), I hope you won’t lay that on me.

If you have further questions, you can reach me via Twitter or Facebook.

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