How To...Design and Publish Greeting Cards, by Linda K. Lindroth

These card-making resources will inspire creativity in your (and your students') special-occasion correspondence

Now is the perfect time for making greeting cards, with so many celebrations in this and upcoming months. There's Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and thank-you notes for gifts. Don't forget the opportunity to create cards for invitations to school events.

Create personalized greeting cards for real and favorite fictional friends.

Why greeting cards?
This is a technology integration that can fit into every curriculum at any grade level. Want to recognize favorite authors? You can mail cards to the publishers or the authors themselves. In 2011, Curious George turns 70, Winnie-the-Pooh will be 85 and Disney's Lady and the Tramp will be 56 years old. Need motivation for your American History or science/invention curriculum? You can celebrate Benjamin Franklin's 304th birthday.

Cards and more

1. Pop-up cards. Turn to the expertise of paper-engineering pro Robert Sabuda at wp.robertsabuda.com for detailed instructions on creating simple pop-ups.

To create your own pop-up cards using a word processing program, follow these simple steps:

Step 1 – Open a new page in your word processing program and use the Page Setup feature to turn it to landscape.

Step 2 – Divide your page into three columns. Column 1 is the front of your card. Columns 2 and 3 are your inside text. Write your inside greeting.

Step 3 – Select a picture or graphic and place it over the dividing line between columns 2 and 3.

Step 4 – Print and fold, accordian-style, along the column lines.

Step 5 – Cut around the graphic on the top and bottom, leaving the middle attached. When the card opens, out pops the graphic! The card will fit in a standard envelope.

2. Greeting card simulation. The U.S. Mint has a great website on money called H.I.P. Pocket Change™. Visit www.usmint.gov to find Plinky's Create-a-Card game. Students purchase graphics and simple greetings using their allowance. There's even a complete economics lesson for creating a card store in the classroom.

3. Greeting card lessons. The web also offers a number of lesson plans for using cards in the curriculum.

• Project Greeting Card – A unit on cards and poetry with rubrics, scoring guides and poems for use with teaching verse.

• Send a Smile: Make a Card for a Special Occasion – Children have fun making a personal holiday greeting card or invitation for a friend or family member.

Whether it's for a student birthday, the holidays or a milestone celebration, choose an occasion and create!

For Reproducible click here. PDF 428KB

Linda K. Lindroth is a technology resource teacher at Russell Cave Elementary School in Lexington, KY.