Looking to connect to students in another part of the world? 1st graders at BB&N are doing just that using epals.com. During their study of Mexico 1st graders are doing a pen pal project with two schools in Mexico, one in Tijuana and one in Saltillo. Each BB&N student is paired with a student from one of the schools. The students write letters to each other, take pictures of themselves and important places around their schools and then the teachers send them back and forth. The students are really enjoying learning about their buddies, their schools and daily life in Mexico and with the speed of e-mail the students are getting responses to their letters/questions quickly.
Epals.com has been a great tool in this project. There are thousands of teachers/classes from around the world on epals.com. We found many in Mexico that fit our criteria. We are doing a simple e-mail exchange but epals also connects classes that want to focus on a particular project. The site also offers curriculum guides for those teachers/classes that help framing their pen pal exchange.
