Peace Corps Por Favor!

Read about the Postcard Project we are doing at my school in Gaira here:

Postcard Project!

Postcard Project Update!

So many postcards!!

UPDATE:

Postcard Project!

Postcard Project Update!

The kids have been busy making use of the postcards in various projects throughout this school year.  Rather than having only a few kids get to take part in the postcard project, we made sure that they could be reused many times!  They were used in projects in second through eighth grade.  I unfortunately did a terrible job of taking pictures, but I want to thank everyone who contributed from the bottom of my heart!  The kids absolutely LOVED the postcards and it was so fun to see their curiosity and thirst for knowledge.  You could really tell that the kids thought the postcards were special and valued them by how gently they treated them!  The postcards are currently residing in an envelope in the teachers lounge so they can continue to be used in the future (minus a few that were given away as rewards and are now prized possessions of some well deserving students)!

English projects with the postcards included:

1. Students were each given a postcard and told to write a letter to the person who sent the postcard (an imaginary person who lives in the place the postcard came from).  They could tell the person about themselves and where they live as well as say what they think they would like about the place in the postcard and ask questions about what it is like to live there.

My favorite questions included-

Alaska- Is it scary to live with whales?

Los Angeles- Are there any trees there?

Miami- My uncle lives there, do you know him?

2. Students wrote mini reports on the locations featured on the postcards and took part in grade level presentations.  The kids worked in small groups to research the place in their postcard (some used the internet, others used books, and some just followed me around asking questions).  At the end of the two weeks, they presented their place to all of the kids in their grade.  This was a huge deal as kids here are very shy to speak in front of a group (let alone in English), but they were so proud of ‘their city’ and did a great job presenting.

3. Students took part in a ‘mystery’ activity.  After we had looked at all of the post cards and talked about the places, we covered up the name on each postcard.  Students worked in pairs as detectives to guess where the postcard might be from.  They had to present their conclusion to the class and tell us what clues lead them to solve to mystery.  My favorite part of this activity was that any postcard with snow was immediately the North Pole and any postcard with Miami or Orlando they thought was Colombia!

4. With the little kids we used the postcards to practice simple vocabulary they already know, while letting them explore and ask questions about the places in the postcards.  We would tape postcards up on the board and then have students find colors or objects they know in English and then they could ask a question about the place (in Spanish…these are the little guys) and I would do my best to answer.  The idea was to let them take part in the postcard project, and peak their interest so that they will be excited when they see these cards again in projects in the future when they are older.

Here is the list of places we have received postcards from (82 postcards in all!):

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