Student Contributor -M. Wilson
With my 2nd graders we wrote letters to new and deployed soldiers, first responders or veterans through the organization Operation Gratitude. They wrote letters of appreciation to the soldiers, facts about themselves, and questions in hopes to possibly receive a response from them. Once Students finished writing their letters they drew pictures to include with their letters and paracord bracelets that will be included in care packages for soldiers and first responders.
Writing letters to soldiers, first responders and veterans serves the community my students come from because all of my students have some connection to the military. My 2nd graders attend the school on Fairchild Air Force Base and experience first hand the struggles of having family away from home or having to move to a new place based on the needs of their parent’s work.
When writing their letters, students went through the writing process. First we brainstormed pieces of information that would be good to share with someone who is a stranger. Using topics we came up with students chose 4 different pieces of information they wanted to share and either chose to use the web or list prewriting strategy. They began drafting their letter, the layout of the letter was; greeting/salutations (Dear Hero), statement of appreciation, 3-4 sentences sharing pieces of information about themselves and questions for soldier, closing sentence.
This project went well, students were very engaged and excited to get to write letters. As many students knew people that are currently deployed they were hopeful that their letter would make it to them. Based on rules and regulations that Operation Gratitude sets for the safety of our students, minor are only allowed to share their first name and an address for an adult (we used school address). Prior to writing the letters we had a class discussion of facts and information that were safe to share with strangers as we don’t know who will get the letters. While having this discussion we discussed how certain information is private and should only be shared with people we know from meeting in person. I felt this was a great discussion to have with students that apply to more than just our letter writing project. The PTO at this school was willing to provide the funds for the paracord bracelet materials, we were able to get enough materials so that each student could make 2 bracelets, one to donate and one to keep!
