What better way to get into the holiday spirit in your ELA classroom than to do a Gingerbread House for Sale Descriptive Writing Activity! (Side Note: Our moms are both realtors in the Bay Area, and they inspired this resource!) It is seriously our favorite time of year to be in the classroom, and this activity really gets us into the holiday spirit! We are just as excited as our students for winter break and love to fill the weeks leading up to vacation with fun, holiday-inspired ELA activities that are still academically challenging and meeting the standards. Click here to read some of our other Christmas blog posts that share ideas to use with your middle schoolers.
Here’s the Holiday Descriptive Writing Activity
Taking on the role of a realtor, students use descriptive writing strategies to create a paragraph encouraging “potential buyers” to purchase a Gingerbread House. Students identify strong vocabulary and descriptive phrases, complete a brainstorming graphic organizer, transform boring sentences into detailed descriptions, and finally, create a real estate flyer advertising their Gingerbread House for Sale!
Our students always beg to spend more time on this writing activity, and the final products are so impressive!
Here’s an excerpt from a fifth grader’s descriptive writing: “This modern home of three bedrooms and four bathrooms is located at 520 Rudolph Road. The inviting Kit Kat walkway lined with Rainbow Nerd gravel on both sides, leads up to a scrumptious graham cracker door, complete with a Peppermint Patty doorknob. This three story home features licorice stairs that lead to an formal living room filled with antique, built-in bookshelves to hold all your Christmas book collection. Off the expansive back deck, is a breathtaking view of an evergreen forest, where you may even catch a glimpse of Santa’s reindeer playing one of their reindeer games…”
Impressive, right?
After crafting their final description, students draw a detailed picture of their gingerbread house (so fun!). The flyers and accompanying pictures make such a festive bulletin board that we often leave them up through January! Hope this inspires some holiday writing in your own classroom!
Want to grab this resource to use with your own students? Just click here to check it out!
We’re also pretty excited to use the 25 Days of Christmas Community Challenge with our students to get even more in the holiday spirit! You can read more about this challenge on the blog here.
Want to learn more about joining The EB Writing Program or how to start the purchase order process for your school district?
Visit : https://www.ebwritingprogram.com/school-licensing
