Mrs. Nixon’s fourth grade class at North Elementary and Mrs. Voeltz’s MSU Health class were pen pals during the first quarter of this school year. They have been writing back and forth to each other asking and answering questions and getting to know each other.
The pen pals had the chance to meet each other recently when the SPHS students dropped by Mrs. Nixon’s classroom at North to play games and get to know each other better.
“Pen pals are the best!” Voeltz said. “The high school students get so excited to get their letters. When we finally got to meet the younger kids that was great, too. I think all of the students were excited and nervous, and to see the smiles and the interactions was so fun.
“The letters are a great way to work on vocabulary, writing skills, and how to address a letter. Learning and fun...you can't beat that!”
The older students have come to cherish this part of health class, and they get as much of a thrill out of it as the younger kids.
“The thing I found the most interesting was being able to see how much we've grown since we were that age,” SPHS senior Aidan Viola said. “Seeing what they are doing in school and what they are interested in really made us realize that we are now ‘the big kids.’ When we first started to send the letters we first asked them what they are interested in, like if they are in sports, how many siblings they have and other things of that sort. They would ask us what high school is like and we could tell them about the soccer games, homecoming and all of the school activities.
“Once we met them we knew a little bit about them and they knew a little about us but we had no idea what they looked like, so when we walked in the class the kids were super excited to see us and we spent the last hour of their school day playing games, drawing pictures and doing crosswords. I think that if I were to choose to do it again I definitely would because I enjoyed the experience of being the example, and remembering what it was like to be in fourth grade.”
