Christmas Story Suitcase

Literacy Christmas suitcase

Our second project for our 5 days of Christmas crafts is a lovely literacy suitcase.

Brief Description: This is a great project to aid and encourage creative writing in children of all ages. This cardboard suitcase can be filled with text about journeys and travels over the Christmas holidays, or used to create a short story.

Keywords: Suitcase, Luggage, Travel, Modes of transport (such as trains, planes, cars, coaches), Adventure, Platforms, Christmas, Festival, Winter, Decoration

Materials Needed: Card, paper, scissors, glue, patterned paper/or painted paper, stamp images, ribbon, felt tip pens

Instructions:

• Decide what shape your luggage is going to be. Once you have planned out the design for your luggage fold a piece of card in half and draw your design on. It is important to make sure that the bottom of your luggage is in line with the fold on the piece of card.

Cut out your basic shape

• Cover your card template with some patterned paper. This can be wrapping paper, magazine images or even painted paper prepared by the children. Think about what is going to be happening in your story and try to find some images that will relate to this.

I have used a cuckoo clock paper to cover my cardboard template

• Cover your handles with a contrasting patterned paper. I have chosen candy cane strips to add to the festive feel for my suitcase.

The contrasting handles add a bit of detail to the piece

• Why not add some finer detail emphasising your suitcase design. I have added on some mock brown leather straps and trim to my design.

Add further details such as luggage straps and trimmings

• In my story my reindeer is going to be travelling the world to find the most perfect gift for Father Christmas. On the cover of my suitcase I have printed off various travel stamps and stuck these on for decorations. Once again try to look for images that say something about the content or a character in your story.

Add images that will help tell your story

• Now we need to turn the suitcase into a book. Cut some white (or what ever coloured paper your desire) to the size of your suitcase. I folded mine in half and laid the suitcase on top of the paper. I then drew around the outside of the suitcase with a pencil. This was then reduced by 1 cm all the way around to ensure that the pages would fit snugly into the book.

Make sure the pages are slightly smaller than the suitcase, otherwise you will have pages that stick out over the edge on the case

• To secure the pages in the book you can staple them in place. However I think that they look much nicer if they are stitched in place. To do this make two holes about 3 inches apart. Carefully thread some string through the holes and tie securely.

Pages tied with coloured string in the book

• You are now ready write your story in your book.

Differentiation:

Key Stage 1: For key stage one pupils you can lay out a range of Christmas themed decorations allowing the children to decorate the cover of their book. Instead of using a suitcase for a template, you can fold a paper plate in half and add a string handle on. The text can be typed on a computer, printed and stuck into the book – adding I.T skills to the project.

Key Stage 2: key stage 2 pupils should be able to write and illustrate their story in the book. You could encourage them to write this on different coloured paper and glue into the book or write directly onto the pages. Sometimes children get a little worried about making a mistake. If the work is drawn/written on paper prior to going into the book it can help relieve some of the worry.

Gifted and Talented: Gifted and talented pupils could add pop up elements to their book or little pockets with pieces that pop out. You could also ask pupils to consider taking photos to tell their story. This adds a different dimension to the book and pupils have to consider, lighting, composition and content of the photo to say or create the mood in the story.