Pen Pal Writing Guidelines for the
Fabulous Fours
Writing
We are practicing writing letters. Although writing to a pen pal is not as formal as writing to a company, I would like every letter to have:
- full name & address of who you are writing to
- date
- salutation
- proper sentences and paragraphs
- signature
- On the envelopes, you will use the full school address as the return address and write out the full address of your pen pal using his/her school address.
- Each letter will be at least 15 sentences long. Longer letters may be written.
- Letters will be written partly in school and mostly at home for homework.
- Letters will be printed or typed on computer. Junior students have trouble reading cursive writing.
- All letters will be read by me, the teacher before they are sent. If I think something is not acceptable, then the letter will not be sent.
- You may not send your home phone number, email address or street address to your pen pal without the permission of your parents. If they allow you to give out that information, then I, the teacher need to be informed of this in writing in your Agenda.
- I expect you to write neatly & well so that your letter is easy to read. You are representing the school and our community when you write to others. You want them to know how good we can be.
- I don’t expect your spelling to be perfect since when people write personal letters, they don’t have to be perfect. However if your spelling is so poor that your pen pal may have difficulty understanding you, you should ask your parent or I to give you the first 3 letters of the words you are worried about so that you can use a dictionary to fix your spelling.
- You may not send gifts to your pen pal. This often leads to embarrassing situations where students get upset when they can’t buy things in return. You may however make things for your pen pal such as drawings, collages, origami or paper airplanes. You may include photos from home if your parents agree.
- Although
writing to pen pals is meant to be fun, and is sometimes the beginning of a
lifetime friendship, remember that this activity is something you are doing
to develop your skills and that you are being marked on how well you do it.
Fun & learning can take place at the same time.
Source: You're On Your Own, Snoopy by Charles M. Schulz