Tips on writing school twinning letters
Karibu! Welcome!
If your class is new to school twinning, here are some tips and ideas for writing your first batch of letters.
Students can brainstorm a list of questions for the twin class, such as questions about the geographical area, school structure, and recreational interests.
The whole school can be involved through display of pictures, artwork, maps or letters for all to read and see. Students are limited only by their imagination and should be encouraged to come up with their own ideas.
As you can see from these photos, many students decorate the letters with colourful artwork, to add their own personality.
At the bottom of the page, there is a letter template!!
Subjects of letters could include:
· differences between schools
· sports
· entertainment
· problems and challenges of adolescents
· how do they travel to school
· how do they spend their school breaks
· who is in their family
· the role of family members
· family pets, hobbies
· what is the community/village like
· weather
· environmental challenges
· problems and issues your community faces
Students need to be reminded to give enough detail when writing about a topic so the recipient will understand what is being written about.
Although personal pen pal relationships may evolve, all correspondence for this twinning should go through the school address. No personal or home addresses will be used.
As you can see from these photos from Kenya, receiving the letters from Canada is always a highlight for the students!!
Message from Education Committee chair (and teacher) Peter Cudmore:
Hello teachers and students! What follows is a brief template of how you can write letters to Kenyan students in your twinned school. This is a sample and can be adapted or changed in any way you wish.
Some students like to include or draw pictures as well. Often teachers write letters to their counterparts in Kenya too.
Thank you again for all of your help! Asante!
If you have any questions please contact me, Peter Cudmore ,at peicudmore@gmail.com or look at https://www.farmershelpingfarmers.ca/ and https://sites.google.com/view/fhfed/home for pictures and more information.
Learn School
123 Apple Street
Townville, PE
A1B 1C3
January 15, 2022
Dear Friend,
Hello, my name is (first name here). I am in grade 5 at (School name) in (town location).
From here students can talk about: hobbies, pets, favorite foods, favorite colours, school subjects, family, weather, musical instruments, video games, future aspirations, and anything the student likes to do. Students should expand on the topics they choose and give more details. Explain why they like certain things and explain what these things are.
In this paragraph they can ask questions to the student: What is school like in Kenya? What do they like to do? How is the weather? What do they do for fun? Do they have any brothers or sisters? What do they want to be when older? Any other question of interest..
Send off. I look forward to hearing from you and hope this letter finds you well. Please write back soon.
Best regards,
Your friend, Timmy
Sample letter below
Learn School
123 Apple Street
Townville, PE
A1B 1C3
January 15, 2022
Dear Friend,
Hi, my name is Timmy. I am in grade 5 at Learn School in Townville. I like my school because it is where I get to see my friends. I have two pet cats. Their names are Patches and Frank. They are brothers. Patches is black and white with orange feet and Frank is all orange. They like to sleep all day and chase after cat toys. They like to purr when they are scratched. I also like to play soccer. I play as a forward and am really good at passing and dribbling the ball. My team won 9 games this summer. I also like gym class and math. We are learning to play volleyball and how to do long division.
What do you like to do? My teacher showed us where Kenya is on a map. Is it warm there? Here it is winter and we have to wear big jackets and boots when we go outside to play in the snow. What games do you like to play? Is there any food you really like? I love pizza with pineapple and ham on top with lots of cheese. What time do you have to go to school? My bus picks me up at 7:30 which I think is too early. Sorry for all of the questions, but I am curious about you and Kenya.
I look forward to hearing from you and hope this letter finds you well. Please write back soon and try to answer some of my questions.
Talk to you soon,
Your friend, Timmy
