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Roberta Mislevy

Letter Writing, Postcards, Email and More

Use these ideas and web resources to meet writing standards and inspire your students. Find lesson plans, activities, and web sites you can use to help your students improve their writing skills.

Click here to go to Email, Post Cards, and Internet.

Letter Writing

Great Introductions to Letter Writing

Wayback Machine - P.S. Keep in Touch
http://pbskids.org/wayback/family/quiz/index.html

The American Presidency - Children's Letters to the Presidents
http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/5a2d.html
Grace Bedell Interview tells about her meeting with Lincoln after she wrote to him.
http://wwwbeta.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=1&RecNum=1760

Letter to President Ford from Anthony Ferriera
Go to ARC Search and find document # 595452
http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/basic_search.jsp

ReviseWise Activity - If you were writing to J.K. Rowling
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/revisewise/english/writing/13_act.shtml

Spy Letters of the American Revolution
http://www.si.umich.edu/spies/index-gallery.html

Lesson Plans for Letter Writing

What's the Difference? Beginning Writers Compare E-Mail with Letter Writing
Read Write Think for Grades K-2
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=299

Dear Librarian: Writing a Persuasive Letter
Read Write Think for Grades 3-5
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=875

I'm Gonna Sit Right Done and Write Someone a Letter
Ed Sitement for Grades 3-5
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=294

Genre Study of Letters with the Jolly Postman
Read Write Think for Grades 3-5
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=322

Who's Got Mail?
Read Write Think for Grades 3-5
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=85

Every Punctuation Mark Counts
Read Write Think for Grades 6-8
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=260

Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in Electronic Messages
Read Write Think for Grades 6-8
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=159

E-Pals Around the World
Read Write Think for Grades 6-8
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=178

Reflective Letter Assignment
Read Write Think for Grades 6-8
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson33/reflectiveletter.pdf

Lesson Plans Using Letter Generator
http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/student_material.asp?id=5
Letter Generator from Read Write Think
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/letter_generator/

Write Letters to Make Things Happen
http://www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=572

Better Letters: Lesson Plans for Teaching Letter Writing from Education World
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson281.shtml

Traci's List of Ten - Letter Writing
http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/letter.shtml

Written Response - Includes Letter Writing Ideas
http://www.lesley.edu/academic_centers/hood/currents/v1n1/bukowiecki.html

Good Advice - Letter Writing to Characters in Books
http://www.teachingk-8.com/archives/articles/good_advice_by_lisa_s_dryden.html

Letter Writing - A Great Way to Explore Whole Language
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3666/is_199505/ai_n8713293

Working Dog Webquest
http://wizard.4teachers.org/builder/worksheet.php3?ID=50913

Letter Writing Friendly Letter Writing Rubric
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1068620&

In Search of Stellaluna's Family - Webquest
http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/chavez/batquest/batquest.html

All About Letter Writing - Really Good Stuff
http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/pdfs/114444.pdf

Alpha's Pen Pals
http://www.thinkalphabits.com/images/teach_guide99.pdf

Compare Friendly, Business, and Persuasive Letter Attributes
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson322/LetterAttributes.pdf

Addresses

Write to the President of the United States
http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/guide/#section1

Write to your favorite author
http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/write.asp

Ask an Expert
http://www.k12science.org/askanexpert.html

Letters from the Past

National Postal Museum
http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/
National Postal Museum Activity Zone
http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/activity/8_activity.html

History of the U.S. Post Office
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmailus.htm#toc

Making Sense of Letters and Diaries (for older students)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/letters/letters.pdf

Correspondence Between John and Abigail Adams
http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/letter/

Prairie Settlement
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/pshome.html

An American Letter by Norwegian Immigrants
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/teachers/lessons/secondary/norwegian.asp

Laura's Letters to Children
http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura/letter.html

The South Pole - Polar Regions Explorers
http://www.south-pole.com/homepage.html

In Their Own Words - Letters from the Gold Rush
http://www.glittering.com/letters/index.html

The Pony Express from Time for Kids
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/news/story/0,6260,129630,00.html

Teaching with Documents - Jackie Robinson, Civil Rights Advocate
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/jackie-robinson/index.html

 

 

Email, eCards, Post Cards, and Internet Ideas

The History of Post Cards
http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/post/post02.html

Write an email to the Berenstain Bears
http://www.berenstainbears.com/

Dear America Question of the Week
http://www.scholastic.com/dearamerica/writers/express/index.htm

Jan Brett Postcards
http://www.janbrett.com/vcards/

ePals Classroom Exchange
http://www.epals.com/

Sports Illustrated for Kids eCards
http://www.sikids.com/ecards/index.html

Stamps

Price of a Stamp Goes Up from Time for Kids
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/news/story/0,6260,1147380,00.html

Postage Stamps Timeline
http://www.stamps.org/kids/January/stamp_overview.htm

Science on Stamps
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/exhibits/stamps/

Stamp on Black History
http://library.thinkquest.org/10320/Stamps.htm

Just for Kids- American Philatelic Society
http://www.stamps.org/kids/kid_StampFun.htm

Collaborations

Flat Stanley Project
http://flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca/

Flat Bobby Blog
http://flatbobby.blogspot.com/

Post Card Geography
http://pcg.cyberbee.com/

More Internet Projects
http://www.schoolworld.asn.au/projects.html

Quizzes and Review

The Parts of a Letter Matching Activity
http://www.quia.com/mc/52656.html

Dear Mr. Henshaw Quiz
http://www.quia.com/pop/7318.html

More Interesting Resources

Stamp of Approval - Riddle
http://members.aol.com/Eleehart/stamp.html

Message in a Bottle - Eduplace
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/gen_act/tales/bottle.html

Turn Letters into Poems
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/letter_poem/index.html

 

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Copyright © 2006 Roberta Mislevy