Respect · Activity

Penpals with Mawill

3rd & 4th Grade

Activity: Arrange for students to be penpals with an individual or some students their own age from another culture. The goal is to give them a chance to learn about respecting the diverse cultures in our world by interacting with kids from another place that is very different from their own. Many cities have sister cities in other countries. That might be a place to look for a penpal match. The next step is to read a letter of introduction to the class, in order to find out more about their penpals. Penpals from both places exchange letters, hand-drawn pictures, and photos over a period of time, a few weeks or even a whole year.    Materials needed: An agreement with a source of penpals (usually a school or a non-profit) to exchange letters with the objective of learning about each other’s cultures; writing and drawing materials, photos of student activities   Directions: Introduce the topic: “Today we will begin an activity that will help us to understand and show respect for other cultures in our world. I have contacted another school and the children there would like to be penpals with you. You will write letters to them and they will write back - we’ll discuss what might be interesting to include in your letters. I will start by sharing a letter with you about your pen pals, their culture, and lifestyle. You’ll find that some things are the same in your culture and some things will be different. We will be writing back and forth for 3 months, one letter a month.”    Read the letter. Ask for examples of what students could write about in their letters. Distribute materials to write and draw pictures to go with their letters. Proofread the letters, and send them to the penpals. Repeat the activity according to the agreement made between the two schools about the time period over which the exchange of letters will occur - how frequently and how long. Read letters from their penpals and talk about it using the guiding questions:    
  1. Do you have anything in common with your pen pal, like age, appearance, make-up of your families, food, interests and hobbies? 
  2. What are some differences between you and your pen pal?  
  3.  Do you think you’d like to travel to your pen pal’s country and meet that person someday? 
  4. What have you learned so far about your pen pal’s country,  favorite foods, activities they like, family members, and personality? 
  Wrap it up: Ask: “Do you think people who are different from each other would get along better if they took the time to get to know one another, like the pen pals did in the story about Mawill? Do you feel like you’re getting to know your penpal better?” Explain that the purpose of this activity is to get to know and respect someone from another culture. They may be very different from us, but that makes our friendship with them even more interesting. Someday we may even want to visit the place where they live.     
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