Trading information – Manistee News Advocate

MANISTEE — In today’s high-tech communication world of texts, tweets and email, sometimes best way to exchange information is the old fashioned way of mailing a letter in a mail box.

It is the format that the fifth grade students at Kennedy Elementary used to take part in the annual Great Mail Race for students. This activity is designed to help students with their writing, geography and social studies skills. They do that by writing letters and filling out information sheets about their school to share with other school children in different states.

Students from the Kennedy Elementary School fifth grade classes of Taylor Johnson and Tanya Hunter said it has been a great experience. Johnson added that hopefully the response will be strong, so her students can learn what it is like in other schools and states around the country.

“The Great Mail Race is where each student will write a letter to a school in a different state and we have 50 students between my two classes, so we sent one to each state,” said Johnson. “What we do is practice writing a letter, addressing an envelope, finding schools in different states. We also fill out a questionnaire about our school and one about our state with some interesting things to show those different schools.”

The goal is to get a response from schools around the country, so the Kennedy students can learn more about that area.

“We are hoping every state will respond with the school questionnaire and state information sheet,” said Johnson. “And if those schools want to participate they can pick out 50 random schools from around the country and send it to them as well.”

Johnson said it is a great learning experience for the students.

“My kids talked about things that are unique to Kennedy Elementary School, so we talked about the different opportunities kids have here like LEGO Robotics and how we do Field Day at the end of the year,” said Johnson. “We also talked about different activities we do here at the school that maybe we get to do that other schools don’t get to do.”

She said on the sheet where they were supposed to furnish information about the state, they focused on things like Mackinac Island, the Great Lakes and two peninsulas. Johnson added that they thought the most interesting fact was it is possible to use a person’s hand as a map.

“We are hoping to get a great response from the other states,” she said.

Students were excited about the prospect of hearing back details on other states from students around the country.

“It is fun to actually send mail to other places that you used to or want to live,” said student Ezperanza Leon. “Nevada is my home state and I hope we get back something from there.”

Fellow student Madison Brown said she hoped to learn more about the United States through the project.

“I like to explore the world without actually having to go anywhere, as I can explore it through messages and have fun doing it,” she said. “It helps me learn about the United States better.”

Student Jase Haner used it as an opportunity to hopefully touch base with a former student and friend.

“What I liked about it was my friend went to Connecticut and when were mailing letters it just hit me to do that as my state because he moved there,” he said. “So I was really excited to write a letter to his school because he goes to a different school than I did. I was excited to tell his whole school about our school and I hope to get letters back.”