Pen Pals

For the last couple of months, Alyssa's class has had pen pals with students from a 5th grade class at a different school in our area. It has been fun for her and she has a lot in common with the girl they matched her up with, so that has made it extra special and exciting.

Today Alyssa wrote the last letter that she will send before she gets to meet her pen pal (she is soooooo excited about this!) in June when the other class takes a field trip to our school. She decided to make a collage of all the things they have in common.
 Thank you, Heather for sharing the cute magnetic bookmarks on your blog! Alyssa made a few of the rainbow and paint ones for her pen pal and they were the perfect little gift to send along with her letter and collage :-)

The girls both love theater and singing. In fact, in one of the letters from her pen pal, the little girl mentioned being nervous about singing the National Anthem that night at a school basketball game. "Wow, she must be really good!" Alyssa told me.


I think letter writing is becoming a lost practice. I'm as guilty as anyone else of neglecting the pen and paper for the speed of the electronic version. It was nice to see the kids encouraged to write actual letters that have a personal touch to them! Alyssa was so excited to receive each letter and she never wasted any time at all writing a response. The notes they passed back and forth were precious. Beyond sharing about their interests and hobbies, their messages were something to the effect of: Do you want to be friends?... Yes! I want to be friends! Do you want to be my friend? When I was a kid, I remember wishing I had a pen pal from a far-away place, and this letter writing experience for Alyssa has been everything a kid could imagine in their childhood pen pal daydreams.