This video about homelessness at Christmas was made by three sixth year secondary students and two teachers in 2012. One of the teachers composed a special song called “Christmas Time” for the video. It features the line “It’s Christmas time, keep the light on for me”.

The video would make a great introduction to dealing with homelessness at Christmas and thinking about others with pupils in senior classes. Pupils could be asked to think

For those of you who are familiar with “The Literacy Shed”, you may already know that one of the sections on the website is “The Christmas Shed”. It contains some Christmas-themed videos with suggestions of how they can be used to support literacy in the classroom at this time of the year.

Have a look at these resources HERE

“The Bear and the Hare” is the heart-warming Christmas TV advert for 2013 from the John Lewis department store in the UK. It tells the story of the friendship between the unlikely pair of animals culminating in a lovely Christmas morning scene in the forest. John Lewis has also developed some classroom resources to support the story of  “The Bear and the Hare”.

This is a great rendition of the classic Christmas song “Fairytale of New York” translated into Gaeilge by TG Lurgan. It is taken from “EP na Nollag” which is a free download of three Christmas songs as Gaeilge.

This video is a song written by Paul Mc Cartney, one of the Beatles. It tells the true story of Christmas Day 1914 when the British and German troops lay down their weapons for the day, shared some food and played a game of football together. This could be used as a great introduction about war and conflict, especially at this time of year. It could also be used as a starting point for some creative writing.

Great Powerpoint presentation on the origins, history and traditions surrounding this particularly Irish Christmas custom.

Source: Shaygirl

(.ppt file 977KB)

Printable bookmarks with the motto “Put a Book On Your List”. Bookmarks are a great incentive for reading for pleasure and it’s good to encourage pupils at this time of the year to continue reading for pleasure. There are two bookmarks per page. If you find that the bookmark is still too large, set your printer options to print two pages per page.

(.pdf file 571KB)

This animated short movie is quite simple in its theme but profound on another level. It could be used in senior classes in the primary school to start a discussion on being alone or loneliness at Christmastime. It could also act as a stimulus for some seasonal creative writing.

Printable bookmarks with the motto “New Year New Books”. Bookmarks are a great incentive for reading for pleasure and it’s good to encourage pupils at this time of the year to continue reading for pleasure. There are two bookmarks per page. If you find that the bookmark is still too large, set your printer options to print two pages per page.

(.pdf file 193KB)

Printable bookmarks with the motto “Get Reading This New Year”. Bookmarks are a great incentive for reading for pleasure and it’s good to encourage pupils at this time of the year to continue reading for pleasure. There are two bookmarks per page. If you find that the bookmark is still too large, set your printer options to print two pages per page.

(.pdf file 189KB)