You've Got Mail

I wish you all could have seen the faces of my students when I showed them the stack of letters in my hands from their American pen pals. The eyes lit up! They gasped! They giggled and waved their hands in anticipation! We talked about how our principal was in America this particular day, and visiting at our pen pals' school on this particular day! What a great celebration! Then I read each child's name and they came to the front to receive their letter. Each one waited with baited breath for their name to be called. The letters were colorful, and some even included pictures they had drawn.

They eagerly read their letters, shared new information with their seat mates, asked each other to read difficult words or unfamiliar expressions. "What is tackle football?" "She says her favorite fruit is canteloupe. What's that?"

We then had a glorious time on the internet watching Oregon State Football clips of games in action. I told them that canteloupe is another name for rock melon. They all giggled uncontrollably. They noticed how much each child had written and lingered over the closing and signature. I asked them to remember back to the day when they met their penpal on the screen during our last video-conference time and imagine that child writing this letter to them. Then we imagined how lucky our principal is to get to meet them in person!

They then shared the letters with each other around the room until it was time to paste them into their keepsake booklet alongside the copy of the first letter they had written to the U.S. students.