Pen Pals

When I was younger, I remember how exciting it was to write my first letter to a new pen pal. It was an opportunity to make a friend in a different country and that alone was mind-blowing. The children here at Beacon House are just as fascinated with the concept as I was when my teacher first introduced the idea.

During these last few weeks, Erika has begun to help the children start writing letters to their pen pals. The pen pals will be from a variety of classrooms in the United States and Norway. Our goal after continuing to write the letters back and forth for a while is to hopefully be able to skype with one of the classrooms. Erika and I thought it would be fun for the children to be able to interact with their pen pals face-to-face.

To help the children understand where their pen pals live, Erika brought in a large map of the world and we help teach the children the different countries and states their pen pals are from. The children have been fascinated with the map and they have made up a game where Erika and I name a country and then they attempt to find it on the map. Who knew learning could be so fun and exciting?   

Currently, the children are writing to a class from Fall City, Washington. The classroom is Diane Tatum’s Kindergarten class from Fall City Elementary School.

Another one of the Pen pals is my eight year-old brother, who is currently in the 4^th grade. For me this really hits home, because I get to help one of the children write to my brother and watch the experience unfold before my eyes. It has been an amazing experience helping Erika with the children.

I will continue to keep you posted as this new experience unfolds, so stay tuned!

Coming Up: The start of Beacon House’s new preschool…