Pen pal program brings students together
By JESSICA ALLEN Staff writer
Most of these first grade pen pals from West Nodaway and North Nodaway had never met prior to Tuesday morning. The two classes met at Beal Park for a picnic lunch after writing back and forth to each other since January.
In the age of email, texting, and social media, hand-written letters have become a rarity.
However, 42 first grade students from North Nodaway R-VI and West Nodaway R-1 learned the art of writing friendly letters this spring by communicating with each other as pen pals.
Teachers Karen Ellis and Julie Acklin said first graders at West Nodaway have been writing to pen pals for around 20 years as a way to practice their writing skills.
“It’s one of our objectives for the year and we thought it would be a fun way to apply those skills in a real life setting,” Ellis said.
In the past, West Nodaway students corresponded with fellow first graders at Horace Mann Laboratory School in Maryville and a school in St. Joseph before partnering with North Nodaway several years ago.
“It’s so much easier to do it locally,” Ellis said.
Beginning in January, students learned the five components of a letter: date, greeting, body, conclusion, and signature. They then sent their own personal letters and waited anxiously for the responses, which would typically arrive between two to three weeks later.
“It has a lot more meaning when they’re writing to someone, and it really motivated them,” Ellis said. “They couldn’t wait to get the letters and then they couldn’t wait to write back.”
North Nodaway teacher Ashley Proffitt echoed the sentiment.
“I feel like they reacted like it was Christmas morning when they got the letters,” she said.
Proffitt said having pen pals eases her students into the difficult task of learning to write.
“Writing is hard at the first grade level,” Proffitt said. “They’re just getting started with doing more than one sentence and understanding complete sentences, and this helps get them more excited.”
Though the students “had no clue” who they were writing to for most of the semester, they were finally able to meet their pen pals Tuesday afternoon at Beal Park.
The trip to Maryville has been the traditional end to the pen pals program for years, and the teachers said they always love to see the two groups of students interact.
Despite having never previously met, first graders from both schools quickly melded together into one group as they gathered on the tennis courts for a picnic lunch before enjoying free time on the playground equipment.
“They don’t just flock to their friends like you’d think they would,” Proffitt said. “They sit with their pen pals and make their own little group of friends.”
“I feel like they reacted like it was Christmas morning when they got the letters,” Proffitt said.
By JESSICA ALLEN Staff writer
From left, Logan Peter and Grey Hunt of West Nodaway R-I and Ridge Harger of North Nodaway R-VI enjoy a picnic lunch at Beal Park in Maryville during a field trip Tuesday morning. The boys are part of first grade classes at the two schools that participate in a pen pal program to help teach them how to write friendly letters.
