Intergenerational Community Pen Pals

Grade Level: K-2

Academic Areas: Language Arts

Duration of service: Year-Long

Character Virtues: Respect, Caring

Service Areas: Human Services

Materials Needed: writing paper and instruments, craft materials for cards, gifts, and refreshments for the celebration

Total Cost of Project: $30 – 70 depending on the type of supplies and the cost of transportation

Time Needed for Project: 1 writing block per letter response and center craft time

Time Needed for Teacher Preparation: 30-60 minutes per week

Experience Needed in CE: little or none

Experience Needed in SL: little or none

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 or more frequent basis (depending on the speed of response from pen pals) by letter/card with senior citizens, gathering information to use in an original poem, story, or drawing. Senior citizens will be asked to share any talents with the class. Students will plan activities and provide materials for projects and activities that they will do with the seniors. Projects will be displayed throughout the service learning partner communities (i.e. school, nursing home, senior day treatment center) as well as at the final Celebration of Friendship in June.

Goals and Objectives

Academic

Learning Goal: Students will write letters and cards to their intergenerational pen pals on a monthly (or more frequent) basis.

Standard: ELA #1, Language for information and understanding

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

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

Learning Goal: Students will read appropriate books to their pen pals during visits.

Standard: ELA Reading #4

Learning Goal: Students will orally present their written projects to their pen pals during the final celebration.

Standard: ELA #2

Service

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, AmeriCorps ,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.

Character

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.

Key Activities

Key Planning Activities

1. After reading Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox, students will discuss ways to befriend seniors. Attention should be given to the differences and similarities in peer friendships and friendship with seniors. 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. If this activity is done with lower grades, comparisons can be made through pictures or group venn diagrams.

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 the senior’s childhood. (In the lower grades, a closure letter can be used.) As relationships develop, craft projects can be made with the pen pal’s interests in mind and be sent with written correspondence. 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) Also, before and after the visits, students will discuss how they feel and how they think their pen pals feel during their visits. (caring and respect)

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)

Celebration Activity

Students will invite their senior pen pal to a “Celebration of Friendship.” Students will read poems and/or stories and drawings which they created with information gathered during the year-long correspondence. Students will contact local newspaper and media to cover the event. Students will solicit funds and/or transportation for the event. An invitation will be extended to parents and supporting community members.