Why not let children send their Christmas wish list to Santa by e-mail, says Veronica Carter
The children in my reception class receive emails from family members and others regularly, and send replies. But our most fun project to date has to be e-mailing Father Christmas. A grandad who had been writing in all term to his grand-daughter had offered to write to other children who were not getting such regular e-mails. The content of the messages he had been sending showed he had a great respect for four-year-olds and a good sense of humour, so I asked if he would take on the role of Father Christmas for a one-week project.
First we set up an e-mail account called 'SantaforPandas' - Pandas being our class name - and earmarked some specific mornings and afternoons when Santa could guarantee being at home and send prompt replies. Over the course of three such sessions the whole class sent their messages, dictating to me what they wanted to say and then clicking on 'Send'.
Within an hour of sending their message, each child received a personal reply and rushed back to the computer to see it. They loved every minute!
For example, Laura had no idea she was really writing to her Grandad:
'Hello Father Christmas,
Please may I have a Thunderbird with people in it for Christmas. They are giant big. Oh, and a magic wand so I can turn you into a frog! That's only a joke but I would like to have the wand. I hope it's a very magic one then I could turn my sister into a frog. Love from...'
Father Christmas replied, 'Hello Laura. You sound like a VERY CHEEKY LITTLE GIRL. I will see if I can find a wand for you but PLEASE don't turn me into a frog. HO HO HO.'
I also particularly enjoyed the message Jason sent, as he was totally sure he wanted broccoli for his teaset for Christmas. 'I'm sorry to be so long in answering your letter,' joked Father Christmas in his reply. 'All the reindeer were having an argument about whose turn it was to have a go on the slide. They're like a lot of children sometimes, HO HO HO!'
We shall repeat the project this year but are hoping to give it a dramatic launch. I bought two Logitech Quickcams in Argos in a buy-one-get-one-free offer for just under 50. I plan to set up one in the classroom and the other in the staffroom and have a video conference with Father Christmas across the school network. Luckily we have an ICT technician who is prepared to dress up and assume the role, so I am hopeful that, between us, we will make the technology do what we want!
