In Mrs. Smith’s Honors English 10, on Dec. 22, students participated in a White Elephant Christmas Exchange, and it was tied in with Common Core Writing Standards.

Students were asked to bring in an item from home with parent permission that was not wanted.

Students wrapped the gift and brought it to class for the gift exchange.

Mrs. Smith read a narrative, which directed the students to pass their present to the left and to the right in order to randomly dole out the presents.

After the narrative, students opened their gifts and were prompted to write a formal thank you letter, following the template and the directions in class.

Students were focusing on keeping a formal tone and following the rules of setting up a proper thank you letter. Students, also, discussed how writing a proper thank you note is important for a range of everyday events including follow-up thank you notes for job interviews. Students discussed the lack of formal writing in simply sending text messages.

After the students wrote the letters, they returned them to the sender of the gift to read.

Sophomore Marissa Gordon said, “This was the best thing in my whole day.”

Students not only looked forward to the event but enjoyed preparing the gift.

“I got to re-purpose an old toy and hopefully give someone else a chance to enjoy it,” said Corie Kramer.

Overall, many students enjoyed it.

“This gift exchange was awesome,” said Tori Moderalli.