It is a December morning, and the room smells faintly of cinnamon from the candle on the teacher's desk. A child is sitting at a table with a journal open, a pencil in one hand and a picture word bank in front of her. The prompt is a letter to Santa, and the word bank has a picture of a letter, a Santa, a gift, a chimney and the snow. She looks at the word bank, finds the word for the gift, and writes her sentence. She does not ask the teacher how to spell it. She does not need to. The word bank is the spelling, and the sentence is hers.
The December Writing Prompts is built for that morning, twenty-four times over. It has 24 December writing prompts for K–2, each in 2 levels, with a drawing box, a sentence starter, a picture word bank and a 6-step I Can checklist, so students can plan, write and check their own work every day from the first week of December to winter break. The prompts cover how to wrap a gift, a letter to Santa, a gingerbread friend, inside a snow globe, a day at the ice rink, a pet reindeer, polar bears, animals in winter, making a paper snowflake, kindness in December and the best thing about winter. The pages are black and white on US Letter paper, and the listing states 66 pages. The grade range is kindergarten through 2nd grade: Level 1 for kindergarten, Level 2 for 1st and 2nd grade; the listing's Highlights field says K–2nd. No answer key row appears in the listing's Highlights section, and none is mentioned in the description.
What the December Prompts Are
Twenty-four prompts, each in both levels, and the set is built to run as a daily journal from the first week of December to winter break. A prompt a day, Monday to Friday, and the weeks have a shape: the first week is how to wrap a gift and the letter to Santa, the second week is the gingerbread friend and the snow globe, the third week is the ice rink and the pet reindeer, and the last week is the kindness in December and the best thing about winter. The weekly plan lays out the order, and the prompt list with page numbers makes it easy to find the day's prompt.
The prompts are written for December, and December is the month writing gets squeezed out by everything else. The parties, the crafts, the concerts, the countdown — the month is full, and the writing is the first thing to go. A prompt a day, ten minutes, with a word bank and a checklist, is a routine that fits inside the busiest month, and the routine is what keeps the writing happening. The prompts work because they are about the children's lives in December, and a child who writes about their own December writes more than a child who writes about a topic they have never met.
Every prompt page shows which writing type it is — narrative, opinion, informative or how-to — and the type is the teaching. A child who writes a narrative about a day at the ice rink and an opinion about the best thing about winter is learning that writing has types, and the types have shapes. The prompt list with page numbers is the teacher's part, and it is worth reading before the month starts.
Six Christmas, Eighteen for Every Family
Six of the prompts are Christmas writing prompts and the other 18 are winter, family and kindness topics, so a teacher can choose the prompts that fit every family in the class. The letter to Santa is a Christmas prompt, and the paper snowflake is a winter prompt, and the kindness in December is a prompt for every family. The choosing is the teaching: a teacher who knows their class can pick the prompts that fit, and the picking is the care.
The Christmas prompts are the ones the children want most: the letter to Santa, the gingerbread friend, the pet reindeer. The winter prompts are the ones that work for everyone: the snow globe, the ice rink, the polar bears, the animals in winter, the paper snowflake. The kindness prompts are the ones that matter most: kindness in December, and the best thing about winter, and the best thing about winter is not always Christmas. A child whose family does not celebrate Christmas should not be asked to write about Christmas every day, and the 18 winter, family and kindness prompts are the ones that make the set work for that child.
Teach the choosing out loud. "This week we have a Christmas prompt and a winter prompt, and you can choose the one that fits your family." The choosing is the respect, and the respect is the teaching. A child who is allowed to choose is a child who writes honestly, and the honesty is the point. The choosing is also the part that makes the set work in a mixed class, because a class with many families needs many prompts, and the 24 prompts are the many. A teacher who knows their class can pick the prompts for the week on Sunday night, and the picking takes five minutes, and the five minutes are the planning.
The Two Levels
Level 1 is for kindergarten: traced sentence starters on primary lines, a 5-picture word bank, a drawing box and an I Can checklist on every page. Level 2 is for 1st and 2nd grade: printed sentence starters and standard writing lines, a 6-picture word bank, a drawing box and an I Can checklist on every page. The difference between the levels is the support, not the topic. Both levels in the December Writing Prompts write about the same gift, the same snow globe, the same reindeer — and that sameness is the point.
Use the levels as a ladder, not a track. A kindergartener who is writing the Level 1 starters easily is a child who is ready for Level 2, and the teacher who moves them is teaching them that they are ready. A 1st grader who is struggling with the printed starters is a child who needs Level 1 for a week, and the move down is not a failure — it is a support, and the support is what makes the writing possible. The levels are there to be moved between, and the moving is the teaching.
The drawing box is the same in both levels, and the drawing is the plan. A child who draws the snow globe first can write about the snow globe, because the picture is the plan. The drawing is not a reward for finishing the writing. It is the start of it, and the start is the part that makes the writing possible.
The Word Banks and the I Can Checklist
The picture word bank is the part that makes the writing independent. A child who cannot spell "reindeer" can find the picture of the reindeer in the bank, copy the word, and keep writing. The bank is the spelling, and the spelling is the thing that stops most young writers. A child who stops to ask how to spell a word has stopped writing, and a child who finds the word in the bank has not stopped at all. The 5-picture bank in Level 1 and the 6-picture bank in Level 2 are the right sizes: enough words to write with, not so many that the child cannot find the one they need.
Teach the children to use the bank before they write. Point to the pictures, say the words, and ask the children which words they will need for their sentence. A child who has chosen their words before writing is a child who writes faster, and the choosing is the planning. The bank is not a crutch. It is a tool, and a tool the child uses on their own is a tool that works.
The 6-step I Can checklist is the self-checking. The child finishes the writing, looks at the checklist, and checks their own work: name, capitals, spaces, punctuation, sound out words, draw a picture, reread. Seven steps, and each one is a habit the child is building. A child who checks their own work is a child who is learning to edit, and the editing is the skill that will matter long after December is over.
Four Kinds of Writing
The prompts cover four kinds of writing — narrative, opinion, informative and how-to — and every page shows which type it is. A narrative prompt asks the child to tell a story: a day at the ice rink. An opinion prompt asks the child to say what they think: the best thing about winter. An informative prompt asks the child to explain: how animals stay warm in winter. A how-to prompt asks the child to give steps: how to wrap a gift, how to make a paper snowflake. Four types, and the child learns them by doing them.
The type printed on the page is the teaching, and it is worth naming out loud. "This one is a how-to," the teacher says, "so your sentences are steps, one after another." The child hears the type, writes the steps, and the type becomes a shape the child knows. By the end of December, the children will know the four types by name, and they will know which one they are writing before they start.
The how-to prompts are the ones that teach the most, because a how-to prompt looks simple and teaches a lot: steps in order, one step at a time, and the steps have to work. A child who writes how to wrap a gift has to think about the order — first the paper, then the tape, then the bow — and the order is the thinking. The informative prompts are the ones that teach the children to explain what they know: how polar bears stay warm, how animals live in winter, and the explaining is the learning.
Running It as a Daily Journal Before the Break
The set is built to run as a daily journal, and a daily journal has three rules: same time, same routine, same expectation. The same time is the morning, when the children are fresh. The same routine is the prompt, the word bank, the drawing box, the checklist. The same expectation is one page a day, every day, and the expectation is the thing that makes the writing happen.
Start the routine in the first week of December, and teach it slowly. Day one is a lesson: read the prompt together, look at the word bank together, draw the picture together, write the sentence together. Day two is practice: the children do it with a reminder. Day three is the routine: the children do it alone, and the teacher's time is the time to sit with one child at a time and listen to them read their sentence out loud. The listening is the teaching.
The weekly plan is the shape of December, and it is worth following. A week of prompts, and then the next week, and the month has a rhythm the children can feel. The last week before winter break is the one to protect, because the last week is when the writing gets squeezed out by everything else, and the routine is the thing that keeps it in. One page a day, ten minutes, and the writing happens even in the last week. The last week is also the week the children are most excited, and the excitement is the energy the writing needs: the kindness prompt in the last week, the best thing about winter in the last week, and the children write about the thing they are feeling right now. A prompt written in the feeling is a prompt written well.
What to Watch For
Three things go wrong with December journals, and all three are easy to prevent. The first is the child who cannot start. A child who sits with a blank page is a child who does not know what to write, and the fix is the drawing box: draw first, then write about the drawing. A child who has drawn the snow globe can write about the snow globe, because the picture is the plan. The drawing is not a reward for finishing the writing. It is the start of it.
The second is the child who writes one sentence and stops. A child who writes "I like winter" and puts the pencil down has done the minimum, and the minimum is not enough. The fix is the word bank: "What else is in the picture? What color is the gift? What does the snow feel like?" The questions are the prompts, and the prompts are the sentences. A child who answers three questions has written three sentences.
The third is the December squeeze. The month is full, the days are short, and the writing is the first thing to go. The fix is the routine: the same time, the same page, the same expectation, and the children will keep going because the routine carries them. The routine is the thing that outlasts the busyness, and the routine is the thing that makes the writing happen in December.
Frequently Asked Questions
What grades are the December writing prompts for?
They are written for kindergarten through 2nd grade. Level 1 is for kindergarten and Level 2 is for 1st and 2nd grade. The listing's Highlights field says K–2nd.
How many prompts are there?
24 prompts in total, each in both levels. They cover how to wrap a gift, a letter to Santa, a gingerbread friend, inside a snow globe, a day at the ice rink, a pet reindeer, polar bears, animals in winter, making a paper snowflake, kindness in December and the best thing about winter.
Are all the prompts about Christmas?
No. Six are Christmas writing prompts and the other 18 are winter, family and kindness topics, so a teacher can choose the prompts that fit every family in the class.
How are the two levels different?
Level 1, for kindergarten, has traced sentence starters on primary lines and a 5-picture word bank. Level 2, for 1st and 2nd grade, has printed sentence starters and standard writing lines and a 6-picture word bank. Both levels have a drawing box and an I Can checklist on every page.
Is there an answer key?
No. No answer key row appears in the listing's Highlights section, and none is mentioned in the description.
What kinds of writing do the prompts cover?
Narrative, opinion, informative and how-to writing, and every page shows which type it is. The December journal cover and blank journal pages for both levels mean the prompts can live in a journal all month.
