I love creating new seasonal activities, but I always try to make them educational. As a child, I used to love to make paper chains to decorate our Christmas tree, and I realized that this activity could easily be adapted to the classroom by having students write on the slips of paper first. In fact, this idea would fit perfectly into a lesson on making connections while reading!
Making connections helps the reader make sense of what he or she is reading, and we often teach our students about three different types of connections: text to text, text to self, and text to world. Children are often taught to recognize and distinguish between these three, so I created a printable to make it super easy for students to record and classify their connections. (For some great mini lessons on teaching connections, read Stephanie Harvey’s book, Strategies That Work.)
You can use this activity just before the holidays and have students create paper chains to decorate their Christmas trees, or you can do the activity at another time during the year and make paper chains for fun. The Paper Chain Connections activity can also be used with a “reading marathon” right before the holidays. The directions for the holiday reading marathon and the paper chain connections are fully explained in my Paper Chain Connections freebie. I hope you and your students enjoy these activities!
