This Year 1 writing unit from our Real Writing collection is built around an original model text by author Mike Davies. Pupils will read Dear Father Christmas, a letter from a child to Father Christmas, and use it as a model to explore letter writing.
The text is available as a PDF in three versions – plain, illustrated and annotated. It comes with annotated and non-annotated PowerPoint presentations to support teaching and learning.
Curriculum links and objectives
Over this two-week unit, pupils will use planning sheets and templates to organise and compose their own simple letters to Father Christmas, learning basic conventions of letter writing, including greetings and closings.
The unit maps directly to the Year 1 English curriculum and provides opportunities to teach or revisit key skills, including:
- Forming plural nouns by adding -s or -es
- Using a capital letter for the personal pronoun I
- Beginning to punctuate sentences with capital letters and full stops
- Saying out loud what they are going to write about
- Composing sentences orally before writing
- Beginning to leave spaces between words
- Reading aloud their own writing
This unit fits naturally with Christmas-themed work.
Resources
The unit includes:
- Three fully resourced lessons with teacher notes, teaching slides and activity sheets
- Planning sheets
- Letter templates
- “Things I’d Like for Christmas” worksheets to support writing
Vocabulary
Tier 2 words: wrap, dear, joy, gift
Tier 3 word: Father Christmas
Common exception words: love, I, you, to, ask, put, are, be, my, some, the, one, once, do, of, she
Key teaching activities
Begin by showing pupils a poster of the North Pole and discussing who might live there and how they could send a letter. Pupils can draw pictures of the North Pole, adding labels and captions.
Read the model text, Dear Father Christmas, to the class and discuss the content. Pupils will identify who the letter is from, who it is addressed to, what gifts are requested and any additional details such as treats left for Father Christmas.
Discuss other seasonal traditions, including non-Christmas celebrations such as Eid or Diwali. Pupils can illustrate and label what Sara wanted for Christmas using the worksheet.
Introduce new vocabulary with tier 2 and tier 3 word cards and complete matching activities. Examine the structure of the letter, highlighting that letters usually begin with Dear and end with Love from or From. Pupils can then use planning sheets to draw or write ideas and sequence their own letters.
Pupils will write their letters using capital letters, full stops and the personal pronoun I. Encourage oral rehearsal of sentences before writing.
Provide support for less confident writers with scaffolds such as simple lists or drawings. Challenge more confident pupils to write full sentences with descriptive vocabulary. Pupils will reread their writing and self-assess using the writer’s checklist.
Finally, discuss how letters are sent and model writing an address on an envelope, emphasising capital letters for place names. Pupils can post their letters, making use of Royal Mail’s service for letters to Father Christmas.
Outcomes
By the end of the unit, pupils will:
- Confidently write a simple letter using correct greeting and closing
- Use capital letters, full stops and the personal pronoun I correctly
- Spell plural nouns ending in -s or -es
- Incorporate tier 2, tier 3 and common exception words into their writing
- Compose and organise ideas orally before writing
- Strengthen handwriting and sentence structure skills
- Understand the purpose and conventions of letter writing in a festive context