With so many of us going back to full virtual learning for the holidays, I needed to create a way for students to make Christmas cards for their parents while distance learning. This has always been a tradition and I did not want the current learning situation to disrupt it.
I had created digital cards for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and they turned out to be huge hits with the parents so I decided to go the same route for Christmas.
The reason I decided on digital cards instead of a craft was not every student has access to craft materials and sending materials home was not ideal. Digital cards are easy to send to students to edit in Google Classroom and Seesaw and can be easily saved or printed by parents as treasured keepsakes.
The ideas for the cards are from parent Christmas cards I have done in the past. I simply made them digital by creating templates in PowerPoint. As you may know, I am a huge fan of giving students choice, so I created 11 different designs from which they could choose. If you would like to use them with your students they are available here.
One of the easiest platforms I have found for inserting student photos in a picture is PowerPoint because it has the crop to shape editing tool. It makes it so easy to resize and shape the photo to the exact size and shape you need. You can use photos you have on file or students can send a recent photo via Google Classroom, Seesaw, or email. Students are pretty good at taking pictures and selfies nowadays LOL.
Once student photos are inserted in the cards, I save them as JPEG picture files and send them to the students to edit.
The cards can be edited by students in Google Slides via Google Classroom. Students can write holiday messages and “sign” their names. They can also insert shapes such as hearts, smiley faces, suns, stars, call outs, etc.
Personally, I love having young students use Seesaw to edit their cards because they can use the drawing tools to sign their names and draw pictures, use the text tool for messages, and my favorite part is they can use the record option to record a special holiday message that the card recipient can download and keep! How special!
I also included a few that require students to fill in responses for writing practice and because they always turn out so adorable.
The Christmas cards can also be printed for students to sign and decorate if digital editing is not available or if you send students packets or printed materials.
If you would like to use these holiday Christmas cards with your students, click here to download them from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
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