Students will learn the following in this lesson:
- learn how a friendly letter is formatted.
- recognize the purpose of friendly letters.
- take part in writing a cordial letter as a class.
- How do linguistic conventions and grammar affect written and spoken communication?
- What is the objective?
- What makes writing clear and effective?
- Body: The main part of a letter.
- Closing: The end or conclusion of a letter.
- Friendly Letter: A written message usually sent through the mail to a friend or family member.
- Greeting: A friendly beginning to a letter.
- Pen Pal: A person who exchanges letters regularly with someone else, usually someone who lives so far away that a personal meeting is rare.
- Judith Caseley. (1994). Dear Annie. Greenwillow Books.
- Jennifer Morris. (2010). Please Write Back. Cartwheel Books.
- pencil
- paper
- envelope
- a letter from a friend that you can read to the class
- Circle the Capitals exercise (LW-K-1-3_Circle the Capitals), one copy for each student
- example of a friendly letter (LW-K-1-3_Friendly Letter), one copy for each student
- As the students participate in the head, body, and foot exercises, monitor them to ensure they understand the lesson. The students who do not comprehend it may face difficulties with the exercise.
- While they write a class letter, ask them to identify the greeting of the letter, the body, and the closing. - Check their responses to assess their understanding of the structure of a cordial letter. To verify if the students understand the contents of a friendly letter, inquire about the salutation, body, and conclusion of the letter. After completing the exercise, distribute the friendly letter sample (LW-K-1-3_Friendly Letter) and ask the students to circle the salutation or the letter's opening. Next, have students place a star at the letter's closing or end. Students should finally draw a square box encircling the letter's body or middle.
- Gather and retain this task within every pupil's writing portfolio for the final evaluation after the course. Examine each student's work on this assignment using the Formative Assessment Scoring Rubric provided in this lesson.
Explicit instruction, modeling, scaffolding, and active engagement
W: The task for the class is to write a friendly letter to another class, as pen pals, to exchange information. This activity helps students recognize that a letter has a beginning, middle, and end, just like other forms of writing.
H: To illustrate this point, the teacher can share a personal account of receiving a letter.
E: To demonstrate the importance of letter writing, read Judith Caseley's story "Dear Annie" and invite students to share their personal experiences of receiving letters.
R: The teacher should provide the opportunity for students to participate in letter-writing activities in class.
R: Students will have the opportunity to participate in writing a class-friendly letter. E: The assessment used in this lesson will be formative, meaning that as the students write and answer questions about the structure and content of a friendly letter, the teacher will observe and evaluate their understanding of the concepts being taught.
T: To reinforce the idea of communication through letter writing, kinesthetic learning activities and story and letter readings will be used.
O: Through modeling, active participation, group writing, and question-answering, the learning activities in this lesson will facilitate whole-group instruction.
Topic: What similarities exist between a friendly letter and a narrative?
Part 1
As the students sit at the gathering spot, they start waving an envelope with excitement. "I'm giddy with anticipation! Yesterday, I received a letter from a distant friend through the mail." How many of you have ever received mail? Allow them to share their experiences. One student shares that they received a letter from a distant friend and asks if they'd like to read it aloud to the class. After pulling out the letter, you read it aloud and discuss its contents with the students.
"I wrote a book about a little girl who receives letters from her grandfather regularly. Pay attention to what they discuss in their letters." Spend some time reading Judith Caseley's Dear Annie. "Wasn't it wonderful of her grandfather to write her letters all the time? Annie was pen friends with her grandfather. It's exciting to get mail from the postman." Spend some time asking students to choose their favorite letter. "Because the letters in this book share intimate details with a friend, they were given name-friendly letters. In a friendly letter, what could you write? " Select a few student responses, then write them on the board. Here are some examples of responses that might be on the list:
how you're doing.
which activities have you engaged in recently?
what you're looking forward to today, tomorrow, next week, etc.
"I'm going to surprise you. I spoke with Mr./Mrs./Ms. _________ (you can choose any teacher in your school to partner with for letter exchanges between classrooms), and he/she expressed interest in having our pen pal be their classroom. We will be writing a letter to the student's class!"
Write a letter at the beginning on a large piece of chart paper. "All right, let's write the recipient of the letter at the top of the page. Thus, we would write "Dear ________ Grade Class" in a friendly letter. Since we are wishing them a greeting, this is known as the greeting. This could alternatively be referred to as the letter's opening. It would be like saying hello."
"Now for the letter's body. This could alternatively be referred to as the letter's middle. What information about our class do we want to give the _____ grade class? What recently have we done? What do we anticipate?" Assist the students in coming up with ideas for the letter's body, or accept some suggestions from the class.
"All right, it's time to wrap up the letter. Saying "Sincerely, Mr. or Mrs. _____'s Class" (your class name) accomplishes this. We refer to this as the closure. It's like saying goodbye, as this is the last letter." Read the letter aloud to the class once it is finished. "This is a fantastic letter; I can't wait to give it to Mr./Mrs./Ms. _________ to read to his/her class. I'm hoping for a letter back soon."
Mini-Lesson on Language Skills
"Let's review our letter before we send it out. Did you happen to notice that I started each sentence of the letter's body with a capital letter? Yes or no. "Yes, it's important to always start each sentence with a capital letter when writing a letter. Let's make sure we understand which letters need to be capitalized. We will do better as we write more."
To reinforce the concept of capital letters, you can conduct an activity in which you write a lowercase and capital letter on the board and ask the students to point to the capital letter. Repeat this a few times to make sure that the students understand the concept. After that, distribute copies of a worksheet called "Circle the Capitals" (LW-K-1-3_Circle the Capitals) to each student and instruct them to circle the capital letters in the worksheet. You can also ask them to write short sentences that start with capital letters or capitalize the bottom of the page if it is appropriate. Once the students have completed the task, collect their worksheets and assess their understanding of the concept.
Part 2
Once you get a letter from the pen-pal classroom, you can finish this lesson.
Remind the students that writing letters is a means of communicating. Ask, "Why would you want to send mail?" After asking students to respond, have them read Jennifer Morris' story, Please Write Back.
Meet in the gathering area once the response letter has been delivered. To make it easier for students to follow along, rewrite anything that is in a small format onto a large piece of paper before reading it to them. "Aren't you delighted that the ________ grade class responded to us? Let's read it together! " Explain to the students what a friendly letter should contain in its opening/greeting, middle/body, and closing.
"Let's learn how to remember the key components of cordial correspondence. Everyone, stand up and cover your head with your hands. This represents the top of the letter, which is where the greeting is located. Now, place your hands on your abdomen to remember that your letter needs a middle, just like your body has a middle. This part of the letter is called the body. Finally, touch your feet to signify the conclusion of your body, just like the letter. This part of the letter is known as the closing. Therefore, we have the opening, the body, and the closing of the letter."
Encourage students to practice touching their head, belly, and feet while saying "beginning, middle, and end" or "greeting, body, and closing" to help them remember.
Give each student a copy of the Friendly Letter (LW-K-1-3_Friendly Letter). Ask students to circle and label the letter's sections to see if they understand the content.
Extension:
As a class, make a capital letter chart that you can post for students to refer to.
Students can communicate with you by using their drawings to convey messages to a friend. Below the image, you can assist them in writing the words.
When it's appropriate, have students write a letter—real or imagined—to a pen pal. Once they're done, ask them to label the opening, the body, and the conclusion.
