Launching Family Message Journals

Materials and Technology

Student Interactives

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

• A booklet or notebook to be used as a journal. Lined paper with an unlined block at the top (for illustrations) works well in the beginning.
  
  
• Back-up people to reply if a child's family members don't. (The letter and pressure from children make this a rare occurrence, but there are always one or two families who cannot reply regularly. In this case, a student teacher in the school, a special subject teacher, the principal, or librarian are good options.)

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Letter Generator

The Letter Generator is a useful tool for students to learn the parts of a business or friendly letter and then compose and print letters for both styles of correspondence.

 

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PRINTOUTS

Family Letter

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WEBSITES

• Invented Spelling and Spelling Development

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PREPARATION

• Choose the activity, book, or experience about which children will write their first two messages. This could be a book read aloud, a science inquiry, a social studies lesson, a school assembly, the experience of the first day at school, making new friends, or any other topic drawing on school experiences.
  
  
• Choose a topic for the demonstration message that you'll compose for students.
  
  
• Prepare and photocopy the Family Letter. Have it translated into families' home languages as necessary.
  
  
• Test the Letter Generator on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.

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