Writing a Letter

As part of our communication unit in our curriculum, we read the book Dear Juno by Soyung Pak.  As I thought about the book, it would be a great one for the beginning of the year with those new kindergarten kiddos are saying "I don't know how to write".  Juno and his grandmother communicate with one another through letters, photographs and pictures.  Juno and grandma know what the other is saying without having to read any words- the pictures tell the story.

During our time in the computer lab on the day we read this, students had the opportunity to try out their letter writing skills.  I didn't get on them too much about capital letters (other than in their names) or letter writing format, though I did ask them to try using "Dear ________" and "love", "sincerely" or "your friend" for a closing with their names.

"Dear Sister  Love you  I am having a good day at school."

"Dear grandmother  Can I come visit please and I am six.  I am going to first grade one day when kindergarten is over."

She ended up writing to her mom about how she likes it when her mom plays with her.

This was a fun little introduction to letter writing and great practice for the kids on their typing.  Some of them are becoming a bit more familiar with the keyboard, which makes little projects like this happen much quicker.  You can see that our tech person has the keyboards in our lab marked with stickers to show important keys (return, shift, delete, etc) so you can say "return, the blue smiley" and they can easily find it.  All the keyboards are marked the same in the lab.

How do you incorporate technology in your week?