Title “Writing a Letter to Sailors”

Standard(s) of The student will write stories, letters, and simple explanations.
Learning a) Generate ideas before writing.
b) Organize writing to include a beginning, middle, and end for narrative and
expository writing.
c) Expand writing to include descriptive detail.
d) Revise writing for clarity.

Key Vocabulary/ VOCAB: Opening, closing

Concepts/Prior CONCEPTS: Parts of a letter (Opening, body, closing, date, placement)
Knowledge Needed PRE-KNOWLEDGE: Brief practice with letter writing

Materials -Whiteboard/smartboard
-Paper for rough drafts with lines for placement
-Paper for final drafts with lines for placement
-Pens, colored pencils
Introduction (Hook) Read a book to whole class to introduce the military (or whoever they’re writing letters to). The
book I read my class was called “H is for Honor.”

Instructional For this lesson, my class wrote letters to the Navy to mesh standards of learning with service
Activities/Strategies learning. However, they could easily practice letter writing by writing to old teachers, friends,
classmates, their parents, etc.
DAY ONE
-Gather students to the rug and read the book, “H is for Honor” (skip or change this step if class
is not writing letters to military)
-On a dry erase board (or smartboard), draw lines as a letter writing template (Pictured below)
-Begin by pointing to the place where the date should be and ask “Who can tell me what to write
here?”
-Continue this with other parts of the letter discussing what goes in the opening, body, and
closing (for some parts, such as the body, what students may write will vary, so as a class we
brainstormed questions they could ask in their letters or other things they could say)
-Also, make sure to emphasize spacing and indents within a letter
- Allow students to return to their seats and pass out rough draft papers and allow them to write
their letters
-Collect their letters and revise as needed
DAY TWO
-Hand back revised letters as well as final draft paper
-I allowed students to write their final drafts in pen and add pictures if they finished early
Accommodations, -May space out lesson to three days or condense it all into one day
If necessary -Who your class writes letters to (Ex. If your class writes letters to the fire station, read them a
book about firefighters, and your class’s brainstorming will be much different)
Closure Activity None 

Follow-Up/ Tell their parents who they wrote letters to today and why the military (or whoever else) is so
Homework special!

REFLECTION The students really enjoyed this because it allowed for creativity. Many of them actually had
(TO BE COMPLETED AFTER family members in the military so they could especially relate. Their letters were very cute and
YOU TEACH)
thoughtful and I truly enjoyed watching them put so much effort into the letters as they did.
Letter writing is also an important life skill and the best part is in a few weeks, the students will
receive responses from the sailors!