Global SchoolNet's Letters to Santa 2007

The "world is flat," even for 6 and 7 year-olds! Estelle Quinlan, a teacher
at Christa McAuliffe elementary school in Oceanside, has her 1st and 2nd
grade special education students participating in the project. Global
SchoolNet matched them with their "Santas" which are high school students
from Kansas. With the help of their teacher, the young kids wrote their
letters and emailed them to Santa. Today they received the replies.

Ho ho ho…

Yvonne Maire

To learn more about this project go to
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/gsnsanta/

More Interesting Details:

* Global SchoolNet's mission is to support 21st century learning. We engage
teachers and students in meaningful project learning exchanges with people
around the world to develop literacy and communication skills, foster
teamwork and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create
multi-cultural understanding. We prepare youth for full participation as
productive and effective citizens in an increasing global economy.
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/

* The Letters to Santa writing project pairs classes of K-2 students with
junior and senior high school students; the younger students write letters
to Santa and the older students respond back - as Santa would.

* Teachers are provided with abundant lesson ideas and tips to help students
have a successful... and very authentic... letter writing
experience.

* This project strengthens students' writing. Primary students want their
letter to Santa to be "just right" and secondary students feel such a high
degree of responsibility to the task that they also want their work to be
their best. Students gladly write, edit, revise and perfect their letters.

* Socially, one of the most noteworthy results of this project is the
cooperative mode that the students seem automatically to slide into, as they
want to help each other, to compare what they have written with what others
in the class have done.

www.globalschoolnet.org

Collaborate, communicate & celebrate learning!