We've embarked on an exciting journey called The Great Mail Race! This activity is designed to help our students learn about all 50 states while practicing our letter writing skills. This idea was actually "borrowed" from another 3rd grade class in Arkansas. Another Hargrave 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Eldredge, received a letter from a 3rd grader in Mrs. Jones' class at West Elementary School in Arkansas. The student wrote us a friendly letter giving us information about his home state and asking us to write him back with information about Texas. What a great idea! we thought. Our class decided to join Mrs. Jones' class in their quest to gather information about each of America's 50 states by writing letters to 3rd grade classes around the country. Here's how we did it:
First, we learned about writing a friendly letter. We practiced our return address and learned about different kinds of closings for our letter. We also spent time on our laptops computers researching facts about Texas that would be interesting to share in our letters to other schools around the country. In order to become experts, the kids used a questionnaire to help guide them in their research about our great state. Once our questionnnaires were complete, the students used their research to compose a friendly letter sharing the information and asking questions about their new friend's state.
Where am I sending my letter? The kids drew the name of 2 states from a hat and then used an atlas to select a city within their states. We discussed how rural, urban, and suburban schools may be different and often the kids selected their city based on what type of school they hoped to correspond with.
Once the city had been decided upon, the students conferenced with me individually to find a school in their chosed city and state. We used the internet as a research tool to find the address of the school.
It was a lot of hard work, but the kids really enjoyed looking at different parts of the country in the atlas and online. We are eager to send off our letters, but we have to make sure they are perfect before we put them in the mail!
We worked hard to edit our work before we sent it to another 3rd grade class. The kids worked with their peers as well as our student teacher, Miss Ross, to make sure that spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and usage was all correct. When our final drafts were complete, we were ready to address the envelopes and send off the letters! Addressing an envelope properly is an important skill that is often overlooked when teaching children to write letters. We learned about the postal codes and abbreviations for each of our states as we addressed the envelopes. Each student wrote our return address then copied the address of their chosen school on each of their envelopes (each student had at least 2 states so we could make sure to write to all 50!)
We've mailed the letters and now we are awaiting a response from our 3rd graders around the country. We hope to hear back from them soon and begin learning about each state in our nation!
We've mailed the letters and now we are awaiting a response from our 3rd graders around the country. We hope to hear back from them soon and begin learning about each state in our nation!
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