Letters to Friends

Materials

1. pre-addressed and stamped envelopes for each child
2. paper
3. pencils and crayons
4. books about post offices

Instructions 

1. Depending on your time and budget, ask each family to send in an envelope, stamped and addressed to their child, or prepare all the envelopes yourself.
2. Tell the children that they will be sending a letter to a friend in the class, and in a few days, each of them will receive a letter at her house!
3. Randomly pass out the envelopes to the children, either in a small group setting or to a few at a time during free-choice time. To avoid hurt feelings, children should not select whom they want to write letters to. Encourage them to keep their letter a surprise so the recipient will have to wait until the letter arrives at her house.
4. Encourage the children to write the name of the child they are sending the letter to and draw a picture. Help them write a message if they'd like to include one.
5. Mail the letters together, if possible.
6. Read a story about the post office, or show a video clip of your own post office.
7. Invite a postal worker to visit your classroom to describe his or her work, show his or her mailbags and bins, and explain the machines in a post office.
8. Ask children to let you know when they receive their letters and see if there are any differences as to when children get their letters. "Why would some take two days, and some take three days?"

Instructions

1. Take a photo of each child in the class. Develop or print the photos.
2. Tape each child's photo to the center top of a piece of cardstock paper.
Under the photo, print, "Hello! My name is ____________." Give each child
her page.
3. Ask the children to print their names in the blank.
4. Next print, "I am __________ years old." Have each child print her age in the
blank.
5. Finally, print, "I like to ____________."
6. Ask each child to dictate something she likes to do. Help the child to print
her words in the blank.
7. Create a cover and bind the pages together into a book. Read and enjoy!
8. Let the children take turns taking the book home to share with their families.
9. Use a copier to make a black and white copy of the book for each child to
keep.
10. If desired, make a "Hello" poster for each child to post around the room.
Simply make a duplicate of the child's page in the book and hang it up for all
to see.