Pen Pals increase student awareness on so many levels - socially, geographically, linguistically, culturally, and more.
The Benefits of Pen Pals Pen pal relationships offer a number of significant inter-disciplinary benefits for your students, including:
- valuable practice at writing letters in the proper format (Language Arts standard)
- increased awareness of societies and cultures from around the world (can be tied into Social Studies, Geography, and more!)
- a chance to maintain ongoing communication with people who live far away
- increased odds that your students will continue to be letter writers for the rest of their lives
Pen pal programs provide students with the opportunity to build friendships that consist of sharing and learning.
Wildwood elementary students pen letters to Georgia pals
The girls have been learning about each other and sharing scenes of their hometowns through postcards. “It’s fun to write,” Amber said with her pencil in hand.
She and her fourth-grade classmates at Glenwood Avenue Elementary School each spent time Tuesday morning writing letters to their pen pals.
“Dear Amber Johnson, Do you celebrate Halloween? If you do, what were you for Halloween,” Amber’s letter began. She went on to ask about Thanksgiving and note her interest in learning to skateboard, something her pen pal loves to do.
“It’s fun to me. I always dreamed of writing letters to people,” Amber said.
The pen pal program has brought smiles to everyone in Vaia Kozanas’ fourth-grade class. It began when Wildwood Crest resident John Lynch, who works at the Wildwoods Convention Center, suggested the class write to another class at Glennwood Academy in Decatur, where his niece Jacquelyn DeWitt is a student teacher.
Kozanas said her 20 students were excited from the start and she welcomed the opportunity to focus on writing.
On Tuesday, all of her students were putting pencil to paper.
“Letter writing is something we don’t practice in schools anymore,” Kozanas said. “There’s so much text messaging and e-mailing.”
Kozanas added that “everything is geared toward writing paragraphs and stories, nothing about letters.”
Her students not only write letters, but they also then learn to edit by reading them aloud to a fellow student to make sure everything sounds just right.
On Tuesday, Kozanas and basic skills teacher Linda Booy spent time with as many students as they could, reviewing the letters before a final version is written.
Lynch, who is originally from Georgia and went to high school in Decatur, plans to travel to the area in a few weeks and will deliver the letters for them.
He started his affiliation with the school district by reading to a class at the elementary school, and then formed the Lunch with Lynch program in which he visits the school and its students as often as his schedule allows.
He said DeWitt casually mentioned the two schools of the same name should become pen pals and it grew from there.
“It’s a chance for the kids to learn about other people and places. It’s geography. It’s writing. It’s social skills,” Lynch said.
The program, he added, should continue with an international flavor next year when DeWitt takes a job teaching at a school in the Netherlands.
But the focus now is getting letters ready for Thanksgiving.
Dawan Hawkins, 9, questioned Kozanas about spelling, checking with her on the words that gave him a little trouble.
A student in Decatur named Gavriel is his pen pal.
“I like that you get to write to your friend and they write back to you,” Dawan said, his postcard from Atlanta prominently placed on his desk.
Nearby, 8-year-old Makayla Butler was crafting her letter to Alyssa, her 10-year-old Decatur pen pal.
She asked about Halloween and her plans for Thanksgiving.
Makayla has written letters before to family members, and was excited to have someone new to write to.
“Writing is my favorite thing in school,” Makayla said.
Kozanas said she hopes the pen pal program continues throughout the year.
“I don’t know who’s more excited, me or the kids,” Kozanas said.
Georgetown Elementary students welcome pen-pals from sister school in Pingtung, Taiwan
GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP -- Yi Chen Li was nervous about coming to Georgetown Elementary School. So were Georgetown students, who hosted 29 Taiwanese pen pals Thursday.
By the end of the school day, Yi and her American counterpart, Tessa Doornbos, were walking hand in hand.
"We really had a good time learning together," said 11-year-old Yi, who goes by the name "Angel."
The lesson?
"It taught us that, no matter where you live, we can all be friends," said Happy Bainbridge, a Georgetown fourth-grader whose pen pal is Peggy Bai.
After communicating by e-mail and blog, the Hudsonville district school welcomed 29 students and five staff from Raey Guang, a sister school in Pingtung. The students went to class, shared lunch and played at recess together before ending the day with an all-school assembly.
The Taiwanese students, some of whom speak little English, then went home with Georgetown families and planned to spend today with their pen pals at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
"What one student said to me is she realized she didn't have to be nervous because her Taiwan friend was just like her," said Theresa Reagan, Georgetown's principal. "Once we come together, we realize how similar we are."
Still, the Taiwanese visitors observed some instructive differences. Chung Wen Yu, the school's principal, said through a translator that the "teaching is very lively, different from Taiwan." And one of the school's English teachers, Sarah Lin, said she was impressed with the 4-year-old building's amenities.
"In Taiwan, our classroom is very narrow," Lin said. "I really love the environment here, It is a warm place for children."
During the assembly, students and staff from the two schools exchanged artwork and gifts, including pictures of U.S. and Taiwanese flags with a heart in the middle. Raey Guang students sang their school song in Mandarin, and students from both schools ended the day by singing Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" in English.
"No matter Raey Guang or Georgetown Elementary School, we all try to do our best to teach the students to 'work hard, learn well and be nice,' " said Lin, referencing Georgetown's mission.
"It's my first time to America, and I love your school -- I love all of it."
Perrysburg Pen Pals in Haiti
Today Haitian students at Missions International of America's Brad Reddick school in Haiti are meeting new friends, pen pals from Perrysburg.“When I knew I was going to travel to Haiti, I wanted my students in fourth grade to be able to talk with students in a different country,” said Lynn Cherry, a fourth grade teacher at Perrysburg’s Woodland Elementary School.
Cherry is one of three teachers and a school psychologist from the Perrysburg school district.
Today she's delivering letters that her Woodland students wrote, introducing themselves; nothing too complicated mainly just names and hobbies.
The Haitian teacher translates then Haitian students scribble their thoughts and pictures in a response written in their native language, Creole.
“Even though our skin color may be different, we're all very much the same and we all share a lot of the same feelings and a lot of the same issues,” said Christie Soltman, a Perrysburg School District psychologist.
While the men on the M-I-A team work on repairs to make the school better on the outside, these Northwest Ohio teachers are trying to make it better on the inside with a tool box filled with different ideas and teaching methods to help the Haitian educators better connect with these big smiles and bright min
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