Content Outline

A. This Unit teaches second and third grade students skills that they need to write letters which incorporates language, math, grammar and social studies concepts.

B.  Concepts:
1. Letter
2. Heading
3. Greeting
4. Body
5. Closing
6. Signature
7. Return Address
8. Mailing Address
9. Money and Change
10. Job and Responsibility
11. Printing
12. Typing

C. Frameworks for the Unit:
    Frameworks for the Unit are Allentown School District Academic Standards and Curriculum Standards for Social Studies from the National Council for the Social Studies.

Students will:

1. Create readable documents with legible handwriting in upper and lower case.
2. Identify the parts of a computer (e.g., mouse, keyboard, monitor, printer, disk drive, etc.)
3. Write a friendly letter complete with heading, greeting, body, closing and signature.
4. Correctly use commas in greeting and closures in a letter and with dates and words in series.
5. Use correct indentation.
6. Know basic addition and subtraction facts.
7. Model and solve problems by representing, adding, and subtracting amounts of money.
8. Solve problems involving combinations of coins and bills.
9. Identify and describe ways family, groups, and community influence the individuals daily life and personal choice.
10. Identify examples of institutions and describe the interactions of people with institutions.
11. Describe how we depend on workers with specialized jobs and the ways in which they contribute to a community.

D. Objectives
    The objectives for this unit are the same as the Standards and are divided up into specific lessons, samples of which are incorporated into this portfolio.

E. Materials and Resources:
    a. Printed Resources
1. Junk Mail
2. Letters from home of both teachers and students
3. Dictionaries
4. Envelopes from junk mail and previously read letters
5. Stamps

    b. Internet Resources:
1. Sites For Teachers
2. The classroom, educational information for teachers, parents and students
3. The Bear Stationery
4. Arthur:  Letter Writer Helper

    c. Audio/Visual Resources
 "The Post Office Project": This video was made by a teacher at Columbia University.  She taught her first grade class about the post office and then had them run their own post office from the basement of their school.

    d. Community Resources
1. Guest Speaker:  Invite a post office worker and/or mailperson to speak to the class
2. Field Trip:  Take a trip to the local post office

    e.  Literature Resources
1.  E:Mail, A True Book by Larry Dane Brimmer
2.  A Visit to the Post Office by Sandra Ziegler
3.  Here Comes the Mail by Gloria Skurzynski
4.  Postal Workers A to Z by Jean Johnson
5.  Special Delivery by Betty Brandt
 

    F. Integrated Activities:

Math:

•  Make enlarged copies of stamp and envelope patterns.  Write addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems on the envelope patterns and write the answers on the stamp patterns.  Have the students place all of the problems (envelopes) under the stamp which shows the matching answer.  For example, the stamp with the number 16 on it should be matched with the envelopes with problems such as 8 x 2, 14 +2 and 20 – 4.

• Ask students how many stamps they could buy for $.50, $1.00, etc.  Set up a center   with play money and copies of a stamp pattern.  Write prices on the stamp patterns and have students practice buying and selling stamps (This activity is directly related to the video mentioned above)

• Invite a mail carrier to the classroom to discuss his/her job.  Beforehand, have students brainstorm questions they want to ask the guest speaker.  Possible questions might be: “How many houses do you deliver mail to each day?” “How many letters do you deliver each day?” “Do you drive a car or a truck?

• Plan a trip to the post office.  Before the trip, have each student write a letter to a family member.  Have the student address an envelope and place the letter inside.  At the post office, allow each child to buy a stamp, place the stamp on his/her envelope and mail the letter.

• Have each student make a mailbox for his/her desk.  Ask each student to bring a shoe box or other small box from home.  Have some ready for students that do not bring this in.  Provide construction paper, markers, glue, scissors and other art supplies for each student to decorate his/her mailbox.  Cut a slit in the top of each box in which students can slide letters.  Have each student write his name on his mailbox and place the mailbox on his desk.  Write each student’s name on a slip of paper and give one slip to each student, making sure no student gets his own name.  Then have students write letters to their designated classmate.  Allow each student to deliver his letter to the proper mailbox.

• Bring in samples of real postage stamps for students to look at and discuss, such as cartoon characters, athletes, movie stars, etc.. Ask students what they would like to see on a stamp.  Have students design their own unique postage stamps.  Provide a stamp patterns for students to decorate along with crayons, markers and pens.  Display the student-designed  stamps around the room or bulletin board.

    G. Literature Selections:

    The Literature Selections were chosen based on the Language Arts Curriculum for the second and third grade.  The theme for these books is "Facing Challenges".  The goal is to discuss the challenges that the characters faced and write a variety of letters related to those challenges.

• Hanna’s Cold Winter by Trish Marx
• Uncle Jed’s Barbershop by Margaree King Mitchell
• Ramona’s Book Report by Beverly Cleary

Activity 2:Uncle Jed’s Barber Shop lends itself to a variety of discussions.  Initiate topics such as segregation, living conditions in the South during the 1940’s and the Great Depression.  After discussions and personal reflections, assign each student to write to Uncle Jed about how proud they are of him and all of his accomplishments.  Bring in old stamps from that time period and discuss what can be learned from them.  Also, discuss the options that the “colored” people and white people had for writing letters at that time.

Activity 3:  Prior to reading this selection, have students research other books by Beverly Cleary in the school library.  Discuss some of the books that they found. Explain to students that Beverly Cleary is a famous childrens book author and give them some details about her.  Generate some questions that the students might have if they were to actually meet her.  Ask students to write a letter to her asking their questions.  Research a fan mail address where these letters can be sent and mail them.  Through reading the story, ask the students if they can tell anything about the author based on the book that she wrote.

Activity Center

Concepts:
1. Five parts of a Friendly Letter
2. Grammar including commas and capitals
3. Addressing an envelope
4. Writing topics
5. Various closings in a Friendly Letter
6. Money and change

Materials:
1. Envelopes
2. Student-friendly letter stationery
3. Stamps
4. Laminated display of Friendly Letters, Addressed Envelopes and possible Letter Closings that students can use as a guide or reference.
5. Mailbox or Bin for students to place their letters in.
6. Dictionaries
7. Cash register
8. Play money

Detailed Description of Activity

    Set up the materials in an accessible part of the classroom with an area for students to write.  During an arranged time during the day, students have the opportunity to go to the “Mail Center”.  At this center, students can write letters to classmates, school mates, friends or relatives using proper form and grammar.  Students can choose to place their letters in envelopes or simply fold them and put them in the mailbox.  The laminated objects are for references and/or guides.  The students can purchase stamps and pay and receive their change on an honor system with play money.  If they need help, they can ask the teacher or a classmate.  During another set time in the day, the teacher or designated mailperson delivers the mail from the mailbox.  Letters addressed to the class as a whole are read aloud by the authors.  Students that receive letters can choose to read them out loud to the class.  The letters that are addressed to the class are stored in a photo album or book for students to be able to look through as products of their letter writing efforts at the end of the unit.

A reflection on this Unit:

    I have had quite some time to reflect on this unit.  There are some things that worked, some that didn't and still some others that I would do differently.
    As a foundation, I believe that I was limited in the options that I had for literature selections as well as goals and objectives.  At the time that this unit was created, the Allentown School District was on a distress list and given three years to improve or the State would take over the school.  Stemming from this, Sheridan Elementary School developed a guideline of standards and a timetable in which to incorporate those standards.  Due to this, my objectives and the time that I had to meet them were limiting.
    Having explained that, I believe that there was also room for creativity within the guidelines and the students and I were able to use that room to expand on the objectives and perform some educational, creative and fun activities.  Creating a mailbox for each student was a wonderful way to incorporate their artistic talents and the students loved receiving mail in their creations.  The class also became closer and formed a cohesiveness as a result of writing letters to each other.
    Although the Activity Center was a great success in that it motivated students to write, think and be creative, we were not able to start a school wide postal system as I had imagined when I began this Unit.  The students seemed to want to perform more tasks with letter writing and I know that they would have been incredibly successful at delivering mail throughout the school.
    This Unit was an educational experience for both myself and my students and all of our efforts involved time, commitment and a willingness to learn.  I believe that those three concepts are the most crucial in any classroom setting, regardless of the unit theme or topic.