The task was brought to the education interns to create a pen pal project with the children in San Miguel and one of the previous intern, Celia Daly’s Spanish classes at The Atlanta School in the United States. Celia Daly teaches Spanish in Atlanta, Georgia to children of ages ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade. Mimi Powell and Celia Daly have discussed proposing a plan to allow the children in San Miguel to make amigos nuevos (new friends) in the United States by creating this project.
Each education intern, Myra, Alida, and I discussed creative ideas that the students could do using the English that they have learned this fall. Mimi made a small presentation for the children to be shown before partaking in their pen pal activity. It described where the students in The Atlanta School were from and why we had decided to do this project. The presentation showed pictures of the students in Atlanta and the students in San Miguel to allow the students in San Miguel to become excited about their new friends in The United States.
The Kinder and 1st grade filled in the blanks to some simple information using their knowledge of English. They filled in their name, where they are from, and their favorite color. We added a hand print onto their paper using their favorite color to put a creative spin on the activity. The 2nd and 3rd grade had previously had a unit on family this fall therefore Myra proposed that they write a few sentences about their families. Then they were to draw their families and label the family members in English. They used construction paper and different colored utensils to put their own creative touch to the activity.
Alida proposed that the 4th grade made an accordion book with construction paper. The students then wrote a short story about their family and friends in San Miguel. Each students added photos of their school, their house, and family in the book.
Lastly, the students in the 5th and 6th grade paired up and wrote their first e-mails through an account Mimi and Celia set up. They learned the basics for writing e-mail. Each student included their names, a couple questions for the students at The Atlanta School and some information about themselves. This activity turned out to be very helpful since we found out this was the first time the students have been exposed to sending e-mail.
