What’s in the Mailbox?

P. LAKSHMI

CBSE, English, Class - III, Unit – VIII

Discovering the joy of writing through letters to friends

 

Major Themes:

• Communication and Letter Writing

• Games and Play

Learning Outcomes:

• Read and enjoy the poem silently.

• Recitation of the poem with appropriate actions.

• Vocabulary development in context

• To develop creativity and writing skills

Previous Knowledge:

• The students are familiar with the names of some professions like Doctor, Teacher, Carpenter, Mason etc….

• Students can identify the rhyming words.

• Students are able to talk on different

modes of communication.

Learning Resources:

• Activity Sheets

• Model of Postcard, Inland Letter, Envelope, Greeting Card…

• Pictures of Professions

• Blackboard

• Textbook

ENGAGE:

Activity 1: “Enacting a Role”

The teacher performs some actions of different professions and asks the pupils to identify the profession related to it. Then the teacher writes the name of each profession on the blackboard.

The familiar ones are written first and the new professions are introduced in the later part of the activity (through pictures) such as Astronaut, Dramatist, Dancer, Musician, Clown, Librarian, Cobbler and Engineer.

Activity 2: “Drawing a Postbox”

The teacher gives a white paper and asks them to draw a “Mailbox” or “Postbox” and colour it appropriately. They are further asked to draw an envelope, postcard, inland letter, greeting card… etc.. (a model of each one could be shown before they begin to draw)

 

EXPLORE

Activity 2: Exploring the Model Letter

 

Warming up to letter writing:

The teacher divides the class into 4 groups. He/ she gives a copy of a sample letter (make it as interesting as possible) to each group. It contains necessary information related to how a letter should be. Here are some initial questions that may help the whole class for group discussions. The teacher asks the pupils to examine the letter carefully and poses few questions on it to each group.

• Who wrote this letter?

• From where was it written? (place)

• To whom is it addressed?

• When was it written?

• What was in your mind as you read the letter?

• Did you want to read the letter again?

• Did you share your letter with your friend next to you?

• Do you feel that you should reply/write

back?

• Can the class describe differences between

a handwritten letter and an email?

The teacher probes the children to read the

letter and give the answers. Thereby the teacher

helps the pupils to get familiar with the letter.

Introducing letter-writing

Teachers can collect a supply of different types

of letters. This allows a discussion to take place

about the different types of letter. Draw up a chart

covering the different aspects of a letter.

• Address

• Greeting

• Style of letter

• What is the message?

• How does the letter end?

This will allow the children to find out for

themselves the different aspects of a letter. This

could be followed by a discussion on the type of

letters the children or their families write. How

many occasions would deserve a letter to be

written?

For example:

• Local festivals

• Birthday party

• Visit to the beach

• Family function

• Temple/ Church festival

Letter writing can be fun and interesting, it helps children compose a text and provide hand

writing practice. They are valuable keepsakes. To reinforce the art of letter writing the teacher can devise various strategies where the students become familiar with the process of letter writing and develop their creative thinking.

Strategy 1:

Teacher gives various themes on which the students can write a short letter. To keep the level of interest up, the topics can be related to their life. Pongal, Deepavali, Birthday party and sport’s day.

New words: Scaffolding by the teacher assumes significance here. Children should be encouraged to ask teachers’ help for new words. The teacher can use this opportunity to write the words on the board for all to see. The whole class will benefit from this exercise.

Strategy 2:

To enable students to take the task to the next level the teacher can give different topics for the children to write letters on. The teacher should tell the children that the letter will be read before the entire class. This read aloud session will ensure whole class participation.

Strategy 3:

“Completing a Letter” The teacher helps the children to write a letter to their friend, telling about their school. A worksheet is given for this purpose with some hints. This activity should be done individually with the support of the teacher.

EXPLAIN

Activity 1: “Reading the poem aloud and silently” The teacher reads the poem aloud with proper pronunciation, rhythm, intonation and stress. The students repeat after the teacher. The second reading is done with actions. The poem is read out several times until the pupils get familiar with the words of the poem. Emphasis on silent reading is given. The students are introduced to silent reading. (Reading with understanding)

Activity 2: “Underlining the Rhyming Words” By now, the students would be familiar with

the identification of the rhyming words. So the teacher encourages them to highlight the words which rhyme from the poem by themselves.

Example:

• Three, Me

• Do, Too

Many more words could be derived from the students and written on the blackboard apart

from the words found in the poem.

Example:

• Three, Me, See, Bee, Key, Knee, Fee, Tea, Free

 

Do, Too, Clue, Blue, Blew, Chew, Drew, Glue, Flew

This activity might help devlop their imagination on vocabulary and enable them to learn new words.

Activity 3: “Vocabulary Enhancement”

New words from the poem are cited with examples. They are written on the blackboard. Students are made to highlight them on their books. Related words could be procured from the pupils themselves and mentioned/ noted on the blackboard by listing one below the other. This might enable diverged thinking of the pupils. The following possible words could be derived from the new word.

This activity could be done as a semantic grouping WORD WEB.

Example:

ELABORATE

Activity 1: Writing a Letter

The teacher asks the pupils to bring an Inland Letter or Postcard. The teacher asks the pupils to write a letter based on any topic (imaginative) with the help of the peers. Then he/she assesses if the letter has been written using the new format. The teacher checks that the letter is written with a proper beginning and ending.

Further, the teacher could ask the students to present their letters and display them on the

classroom walls.

Activity 2: “Making an Envelope”

After the activity, the teacher asks the students to take a sheet of paper/ gives a white paper. Then he/she asks them to make an envelope (Seeing the Book Activity) and put the letter (which they had already written to their friend) inside the envelope. Then the teacher helps them to write the address neatly on the envelope. By posting it with the school's address on the envelope, see the joy of the children when they receive a letter in their name

EVALUATE:

Activity 1: “Preparing a Greeting Card” – Creativity

The teacher emboldens the pupils to make a Greeting Card to their friend or family member with colourful drawings on it. The teacher sees to it that it contains a proper message such as “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”, “HAPPY PONGAL” or “HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY”.