Friendly Letters

Today our grammar lesson was about commas in friendly letters. I remember LOVING friendly letters when I was growing up! My third grade teacher, Mrs. Munz, made them so much fun for us. I also remember my mom getting me a lot of stationary and encouraging me to write. I still enjoy doing that today. So, I definitely want to pass this along to my children.

We started off with the basic lesson out of our grammar book which provides a very basic lesson. I then encouraged my daughter to think about some people she would like to write letters to and what she would like to write about. I gave her stationary that I found on the Jan Brett website (which has FABULOUS resources, by the way!) and the first "person" she chose to write to was actually my sister-in-law's cat! The letter was very cute and funny. She drew a little picture at the end and we addressed the envelope, gave it a stamp, and put it in the mailbox!

Next, I had found a wonderful online activity through Read, Write, Think which provided a template for completing friendly and business letters. I know it is a valuable skill to write a friendly letter in your own handwriting, but it may be even more valuable to learn how to construct one on the computer! This little tutorial makes it very simple and fun - when the child is done with their letter they can choose a cute frame to put around it and then print. My daughter wrote a letter to her grandpa. I'm hoping we get some letters back and that will encourage more friendly letter writing.