After we wrote the letters with the students, we had the idea of making a list of each student and numbering them so we know which student's letters would be returned. We then got large yellow envelopes and then put a not in it explaining the project and that the letter was from a student at NPE. We also included an envelope with a return address already on it that was addressed to my partner's house to make it easy for the residents to return the letters. We also made sure to number each envelope corresponding with the number that we assigned to each student. Then we headed over to Woodland Terrace and started placing the letters in each condominium's mailbox. As we put the letters in each mailbox, we looked at the number on the envelope and matched it with the first four numbers of each address and added it to our sheet of information. After a few days, we had already gotten 11 letters back and we are still waiting on only 12 more! After each letter was returned, we marked on our sheet if it was returned by highlighting the column green.
0 Comments
We went out and got supplies for the students and then headed over to Mrs. Rodebeck's fourth grade class at NPE to finally write the letters with the students. They were so excited to write the letters and they loved the idea that they were going to have a friend with a resident at Woodland Terrace. Because Halloween was the following weekend, Mrs Rodebeck printed off Halloween-themed letter templates to have the kids write their letters on. My partner and I walked around the classroom as the students were writing their letters and we were there to help them with any spelling or anything else they needed. The students letters were so good; they wrote about their favorite hobbies or activities, places they have been, their families and friends, their pets, and even what they were going to be for Halloween. The next step is to deliver the letters to the residents!
My partner and I were having trouble at first finding residents to sign up to receive and return letters so we decided to take it upon ourselves to find recruits. We found an Adobe website that we used to personalize our very own flyers to deliver to the residents ourselves. We added our goals and ideas for the project onto the flyers as well as our emails and phone numbers so the residents could get into contact with us after the received the flyers. We then headed to Woodland Terrace and delivered our flyers into each of the resident's inboxes in the mail room and then delivered our flyers into each of the condominium mailboxes outside of Woodland Terrace. We now wait for the residents to reach out to us!
My partner and I have developed a project that solves a flaw in the community. We believe that the senior citizens at our local nursing home need more community interaction. We also think that elementary kids could learn so much from these residents and would benefit from writing letters and corresponding with them. I have presented this project to the administrators of our district and got it refined and approved. This allowed me to go to an elementary class at New Palestine Elementary School. Mrs. Rodebeck, a fourth grade teacher, accepted my request to use her class. I presented to her students and helped them use the templates we made to write the first letters. We then drove these letters from NPE to Woodland Terrace Senior Living. The next week, we picked up the letters that the residents wrote in response and took them back to the elementary school. We helped the kids read their senior citizen's letter. We plan to do this with many more classes, and have already had the Brandywine Elementary School principal reach out to us and ask that we expand our project to his school. |