Pen Pals UNITE!

The skill of letter writing at St. Vincent Martyr
School took on a whole new meaning on Thursday, May 19^th when “Pen Pals” were united!

In the beginning of January
2011, a first grade class from Scotch Plains and a first grade class from St.
Vincent Martyr School in Madison started to exchange letters which included a
simple surprise in each envelope for their pen pals. They created a booklet
about the community of Madison, shared riddles, made bookmarks, drew
self-portraits with acrostic poems and shared their pond research. In return,
the students received self-portraits, glyphs (pictorial representations of data)
and beautiful watercolor paintings of flowers.

In addition, Mrs. Kathleen Cannavina’s (first grade teacher of Grade 1C at St. Vincent Martyr)
class cared for “Bananas”, the pen pals’ stuffed monkey during spring break and
stretched their imaginations to write about his adventures in a class log.
Later, Mrs. Leigh DelPorto’s (first grade teacher form Scotch Plains and former
colleague of Mrs. Cannavina) class had a visit from Snappy, the beloved hermit
crab from Ms. Cannavina’s class. Mrs. DelPorto’s class, in return, wrote and
illustrated a terrific story about him which became a popular choice during
classroom “book breaks”.

So with much curiosity, creativity and anticipation, Mrs. DelPorto took a field trip to St. Vincent
Martyr School. When the Scotch Plains students arrived and got off the bus,
they were excitedly greeted by Mrs. Cannavina’s class with smiles and handmade,
oversized “Welcome Signs”.

But the surprises didn’t end there. The excitement continued in the classroom, with pen pals finding
each other by matching animal pictures, hearing a pen pal story and sharing a
snack of bagels and fruit which was provided by families of Mrs. Cannavina’s
first grade class. The pen pals worked together to create foam frames for a
keepsake group picture. Thanks to the generous spirit of Mrs. Plunkett (Gym
teacher at St. Vincent Martyr); all the students participated in games and
relay races. Mrs. Cannavina, who has been a teacher for over twenty years,
celebrated her first year at St. Vincent Martyr School with this very
successful and intellectually stimulating “Pen Pal” program. Mrs. Cannavina
said, “I hope this happy first grade memory will stay with my students for many
years to come!”