Grade 4 pen pals from Howick Elementary School and École Saint-Jean met for the first time in the cafeteria at the English school on February 23.
The pen pals played some fun ice-breaker games so the students could get to know each other better. There were some colouring and bracelet-making activities, and some different card and board games to play.
The students had written back and forth to each other once before and sent a Valentine’s Day craft with a little message to each othaer. The Howick students write in French, and the Saint-Jean students write in English.
The Linguistic Links project is a partnership between the New Frontiers School Board, the Centre de Services Scolaire de la Vallée-des-Tisserands, and the Montérégie West Community Network.
“It is really fun and you get to meet new people,” said a student at Howick Elementary.
“They teamed us up and it was fun because we got to learn more about each other and when we were colouring, we could ask questions to each other,” said another student.
“The best thing about the project is making new friends and we can learn new languages,”she added.
“The expansion of our Linguistic Links project to Howick is something we had hoped to do since the very beginning,” said Nadya Kovacs, an outreach and program coordinator with the MWCN.
The project is about bringing French and English kids together, helping them feel more comfortable in their second language, and building important community connections.
“Like Huntingdon, Howick is a small community where many students already know each other outside of school. Since they only shared their first names in their letters, it was exciting for them to realize they already knew some of the students from the other school,” Kovacs explained.
“Our first meeting between the two Grade 4 classes was a fun, positive experience for our students,” said Ms. Margo McCaffrey, who teaches French at Howick Elementary. “It was an authentic opportunity for the students to practice their second language in an engaging way, and we’re looking forward to the next time we meet.”
*This article was written by students in Grade 4 at Howick Elementary School as part of a partnership between the New Frontiers School Board and The Gleaner, with support from the federal government.