Preliminary List of Participants:
Project Coordinator will send you a list of all participants registered to date

Contact your Partner:
We will send you complete contact information about your partner school.

As soon as you receive this information, send off an email to your partner teacher.

Then, with your partner teacher, review this suggested timeline and adjust the dates to suit your respective calendars and students.

As you can see, there is a short time between the Thanksgiving and Winter vacations. That is why it is important, especially for novice networkers, to make contact and practice the file transfer procedures the first few weeks of November.

This short time frame makes it imperative that primary students get their letters to Santa finished and sent as early as possible. However, you and your partner school are free to adjust this suggested timeline to meet your own calendar needs.

If you have any concerns about your partner assignment, send email as soon as possible to santa2011@gsn.org.

Pre-writing activities:
Review the lesson plan materials to prepare your students to write their respective letters. Review the sample correspondence to see how prior classes have conducted this project.

Practice Letters TO/FROM Santa:
Review the project guidelines for writing, assembling and emailing letters TO Santa (primary class) and FROM Santa (secondary class).

Then Practice exchanging sample Santa Letter emails with your partner teacher.

Exchange best postal addresses in the event that email fails at the last minute.

U.S. Holiday - Thanksgiving:

Send Letters To Santa:
Primary students send letters to santa via email.

Remember that these are a suggested dates. You and your partner teacher should agree upon dates for exchange that meets both of your needs.

Santa's Workshop:
Upper grade students work on replies "from Santa"

Send Santa's Replies:
Upper grade students send Santa's replies via email

Feedback:
Primary teachers: send feedback to your upper grade partner class about the impact of this project on your students. Provide anecdotes and details that will help them see your students reading Santa's letters. Take some digital pictures and email them to your parter class.

Secondary teachers: Have your students write to the primary teacher about their experience "acting Santa."