thank you

Here are our final letters to our pen pals. Thank you!

they're real people!

Along with the books (see below), I had one last surprise for my students. During the last week of school, we were going to meet some of our pen pals! Unfortunately none of them were able to visit us in person, but thanks to technology, we were able to FaceTime with about half of them and put a face to a name (and see that I was not writing all the letters!). The students would constantly ask me about their pen pals so it was funny to see how shy they got once they actually had the chance to talk to them. While written correspondence is a special way of communicating, the visual aspect of videochatting really gave a true picture of everyone's personalities and enthusiasm. I hope our pen pals had as much fun as we did! The kids kept asking if we could call back.

special delivery

The school year is coming to an end, and so must the pencil pal project. The past few months have been heartwarming for me both as a teacher and friend, and I am so thankful for everyone involved. In addition to helping my students' reading and writing skills, our pencil pals have taught us about new places, occupations, animals, etc. And despite all of the differences between us, whether they be location, age, or dessert preference, we have been able to develop some pretty sweet friendships.

Our pen pals were thoughtful enough to send the students off with some summer reading. A few picked their favorite books from childhood; others picked ones based on the student's interests. Each one was perfect, and I've never seen my students so eager to read! I even saw one of them taking his book with him to recess. Every child deserves a good book, and our pen pals made that happen. Thank you for your generosity!

mother's day

I am so sorry for not posting here consistently. The end of the year is always a busy time!

In May, our pencil pals shared about their mothers. Although we come from different places, family structures, and cultures, we were able to see that our mothers shared many of the same characteristics and that we all love them very much!

where do you live?

One of the coolest things about this project is that the kids were able to make connections with people who live in different places that they had never heard of or been to! Some of our pen pals sent in letters and postcards to tell us about where they live. We learned that the world is much bigger than Chicago!

if you were a superhero

Superheroes will never get old. My kids love them to the point where they will pretend their pencils are superheroes and fly around the room. (I'm hoping this is a testament to their imaginations and not my classroom management skills.) One of my students recently learned Superman's real name and writes Clark on all of his papers and corrects me when I call him by any other name.

Anyway, I love having the freedom to introduce any writing topic in class, and I thought this was a fun one that everyone would enjoy. Our pencil pals did an amazing job as well! I even copied one of their ideas for our illustrations.

*All students' parents have submitted online photo release forms.

 

 

what do you want to be when you grow up?

Many of my students have a hard time answering that question. Some say "nothing," and most say "I don't know." Do you remember what you wanted to be? I always wanted to be an artist.

Two weeks ago, we had Career Week at school. Parents volunteered to come in and talk about their jobs, and our pencil pals told us about theirs. The kids were able to learn about new careers and wrote about what they want to be when they grow up. It was encouraging to see them revisit this question (I also asked in the beginning of the year) and to read their responses. Here are some of them:

"This job will be hard because there are so so so many animals."

"I will need Pampers and kids. I can't wait to be a mom!"

jason's recent creations

JasonJ + sidekicks

Superpencil

what is your favorite dessert?

This week, our pencil pals wrote about their favorite desserts. The kids loved all of them! The prompt was also the perfect way to introduce adjectives.

 

After we read our pencil pals' responses, the kids voted on which they wanted as a treat on Friday.

Cookies were the most popular!

My students worked really hard this week and wrote about their favorite desserts as well. Here's a look at the process.

what is a pen pal?

This week, I told my students we'd be starting a pen pal project in writing. Before I could introduce it, someone blurted out, "What's a pen pal?" Great question.

To give you an idea of their wild imaginations, here are their original thoughts on what a pen pal is...

P.S. We're working on using context clues to determine meanings of words we don't know. Don't be alarmed! :)

how it all began

Last year, I was really inspired by one of my students, Jason. He would draw superheroes on all of his assignments and rip them out to make "toys."

 

Most teachers would've been frustrated because he wouldn't do his work, but I was too distracted by his creativity. Every single day, I took away Jason's "toys" so he could do his work, but I didn't throw them away! I actually saved them in a folder to give back to him at the end of the year. I showed some of my friends, and they were were impressed by his art as well. 

Victor requested Batman and Joker toys.