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“Skyping” School

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Have you ever Skyped School? Not skipped – your teachers and parents would not like that! Skype -  that is, video conferencing with someone over the internet. Well here at Maywood, kindergartners are having their very own video conferences. The kindergartners have a pen pal, five-year-old Meisha, from Missouri. Ms. Hottovey’s kindergarten class has been writing to Meisha for a couple of weeks. Pen pals are people who regularly write to each other. Most pen pals just write letters, and after a long time they may meet their pal in person. Technology has started to play a huge roll and changed this process. Now you can not only write, but the added bonus is that you can see one another face-to-face over the computer. This activity not only helps Ms. Hottovey’s class develop their writing skills, but her kindergartners also familiarize themselves with new technology. On November 21st, the kindergarteners finally got to meet their pal on the other side of the paper. At 8:10, all fourteen kindergarteners met Meisha over video-conferencing.  They introduced themselves and told her their ages. Later this school year, they are hoping that Meisha can visit Maywood and spend a day with her new pals.

In addition to writing to a pen pal, the kindergartners wrote letters to their favorite Disney character. Ms. Hottovy came across this idea where you can write to your favorite Disney character and  thought this would make a great writing assignment for her class. So in class each student wrote to his or her favorite characters. For example, one child wrote to Elsa, the main character from the movie Frozen. She wrote “I love the white braid and blue dress.” These letters will be sent to the Disney characters and in return the kindergarteners will get a signed photo. As you can see, there are several writing activities happening in the kindergartners’ class.