Intergenerational Community Pen Pals

Grade Level: K-2

Academic Areas: Language Arts, Social Studies

Duration of service: Year Long

Character Virtues: Respect, Caring

Service Areas: Human Services

Service Learning Project:

After reading the book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox, students will collaborate with local religious and service groups to identify isolated senior citizens. Students will correspond on a monthly basis by letter or tape recorder with a senior citizen gathering information to use in an original poem and or story. Senior citizens will be asked to share any talents with the class. Students will plan activities and provide materials for the seniors’ projects. Projects will be displayed throughout the community as well as at the final celebration in June where students and seniors will meet at a "Celebration of Friendship."

Learning Goal: Students will write letters to their intergenerational pen pals on a monthly basis.

Standard: ELA #1, Language for information and understanding

Learning Goal: Students will create poetry and/or stories about their pen pal based on information gathered during correspondence.

Standard: ELA #1, Language for information and understanding ELA #4 Language for social interaction

Community need: Increased social isolation in the senior population within the community resulting in increased health problems and issues for this group.

Possible Community Partners: Religious outreach programs, senior citizen centers, nursing homes, social workers, and transport services Americore ,VISTA

Objective: Students will bridge the gap between generations by regular correspondence with seniors.

Objective: Students will invite and arrange transportation for seniors to participate in student planned classroom activities throughout the year.

Virtue: Caring

Objective: Students will show interest in the senior community around them by communicating through senior pen pal letter writing.

Virtue: Respect

Objective: Students will gain a greater understanding of the senior citizens’ value as community members through written communication.

1. After reading Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox, students will discuss ways to befriend seniors. Attention should be made in the differences and similarities in peer friendships and friendship with seniors.
2. Students will be asked to develop a list of potential senior pen pals using community resources such as parents, nursing homes, churches, senior centers etc.

 Key Service Activities

1. The main intent of the letter writing is to develop reciprocal friendships that will enrich the seniors’and students’ lives. Students will write a letter of introduction to their senior pen pal and include questions about their childhood. Subsequent letters will follow with further questions about senior’s interests, talents and life. Students will provide the same information to the senior.
2. Students will invite senior pen pals to visit their class and share a special talent or craft making activity with the class. Students will plan and collect necessary materials for the activity with seniors. Completed projects will be displayed at various locations within the community along with posters and photos of the process.

 Key Reflection Activities

1. (oral) Students will share a memory of a time when they felt lonely and how a caring person made them feel better.(caring)
2. (performance) Students will write or draw a picture of an elderly person who is or was very special to them. They should include reasons why they admired or appreciated them. (respect)
3. (written) Students will keep a correspondence journal of letters sent to and received from their senior pen pal during the year. Each student will add an entry after each response reacting to the voice and tone of their pen pal. They may also include questions they want to ask and things they wish to share in future letters. (caring and respect)