Christmas cards and packaging

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This Hot Topic collects websites with some ideas to help with classroom Christmas activities, and highlights a few thoughts for alternative Christmas celebrations.

Christmas means different thing to different people. Many New Zealanders feel far removed from the stereotypical hot roast meal, plum pudding, and pine tree decorated with fake snow. The New Zealand version of The Twelve Days of Christmas reflects a more "kiwi" Christmas.

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve piupiu swinging, eleven haka lessons, ten juicy fishes, nine sacks of pipi, eight plants of puha, seven eels a-swimming, six poi a-twirling, five big fat pigs, four huhu grubs, three flax kits, two kumara, and a pukeko in a ponga tree.

Expanding on the idea of a New Zealand Christmas, it could be a good time of year to spare a thought for our "clean green" image.

The festive season can mean a huge increase in the amount of waste we produce with cards, wrapping paper, bottles, cans, food leftovers, unwanted gifts, and dead Christmas trees adding to the pile. If we chuck it all in the bin and eventually to the landfill, the paper can take 2–5 months to decompose, orange peel 6 months, milk cartons 5 years, plastic bags 10–20 years, and plastic containers 50–60 years. Polystyrene and glass never break down.

The inclusion of diversity is also important to New Zealand society. Christmas is a time when a lot of people can feel excluded from society, because of religion and culture, or because they are without families, friends, a home, or money.

Some alternative ways of celebrating Christmas could include:

• making Christmas decorations, cards, and presents from recycled materials;
• having a live Christmas tree, or an artificial tree, rather than cutting down a tree in the traditional manner;
• having a green theme for Christmas parties, complete with menu planning, and crockery that can be washed;
• asking Father Christmas, if he visits, to bring one special present for the whole class rather than a (cheap) present for each student;
• giving a donation to charity instead of sending Christmas cards;
• only wrapping a present if it needs it – many presents come in gift boxes which don't need wrapping;
• making Christmas crackers and personalising them with a gift you know someone really wants;
• giving friends a gift voucher instead of a token present they might not want;
• remembering to recycle all bottles, jars, newspapers, cans, plastic bottles, cardboard, textiles, and books.

Twelve Days of Christmas – Christmas Packaging
This online project is based around the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. The aim is to select a food with an association with the song and construct a suitable Christmas package to send this food to a friend or relative. The project could be a technology and ICT-based classroom study and is suited for a wide age range (http://education.otago.ac.nz/nzlnet/xmas_project/home.html).

Mrs Claus' Workshop
You can email Mrs Claus and receive a response from this site. It also includes reindeer facts, a slide show, links to reindeer sites, a reindeer quiz, lesson plans, books, ask an expert, riddles and jokes, craft ideas, Christmas clip art, and awards and resources (www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/claus/leader.html).

Printmaking and Collage
In this level 1 learning example the students observe colours, shapes, textures, and patterns of leaves while on an autumn walk, explore the elements of line, shape, and pattern, and make drawings and rubbings from collected natural materials. They follow simple steps to create a card block for printmaking or develop ideas for a collage, using torn or cut paper (www.tki.org.nz/e/arts/visarts/visarts_L1/visarts_L1_A3_menu.php).

Snazzy Stationery
This ICT starter idea written by teachers, for teachers, describes how students could create a classroom logo that could be incorporated into classroom stationery items, such as letterhead, fax sheet, envelopes, labels, and cards (www.tki.org.nz/r/ict/ideas/snazzystationary_e.php).

Crafts for Kids
This teaching resource gives instructions for a comprehensive range of children's crafts. It includes instructions for hats, masks, insects, birds, animals, paper crafts, twig crafts, plaster crafts, cards for a range of occasions, and a section of craft ideas for students at Christmas time. (www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/).

Postcards From My Planet
In this level 1-2 unit intended for year 2-4, students share their holidays by creating their own postcards. They publish clear concise messages on postcards describing activities, feelings, and a place visited during the holidays (http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/postcards/home.html).

Technology in the New Zealand Curriculum (www.tki.org.nz/r/technology/curriculum/contents_e.php), Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum (www.tki.org.nz/r/socialscience/curriculum/index_e.php) and the Arts in the New Zealand curriculum (www.tki.org.nz/r/arts/curriculum/statement/contents_e.php) are available on TKI.