Letter+to+parents

Dear Parents, This week we will begin a project that will last the remainder of the school year. The project is called Travelmates, each student will be required to bring in a stuffed animal no bigger than 12 inches. Please help your child choose one that is not very meaningful for he/she may not get it back, let me know if you need one. We will then equip each animal with a backpack and a notebook to prepare it for travel. The week before Thanksgiving, we will have a going-away party for our Travelmate pals and we will send them on their way. Here is where you come in, the Travelmates need to be sent somewhere-anywhere. For example, your family is going to New York for Thanksgiving to visit Uncle Joe. You would bring the TM with you and ask Uncle Joe to participate. Uncle Joe will then give it to his friend who is going to Texas for a business trip. It will get passed around until it is time to be delivered back to the Ed Fenn School next April. At each stop the person would write in the notebook to tell of the TM’s adventure. Perhaps the person may even send us a postcard, e-mail or pictures to let us know how the pal is doing. You may be saying, I have no place to send it. There is plenty of school staff that participated last time and WANT to participate again. Sometime in April (I’m thinking April 15) we would ask for the pal to be sent “home”. Some may not be sent back, there is no telling – in that case we will have a memorial ceremony for the MIA Travelmates. This project has many learning opportunities for the children – Geography, Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Technology. . .the possibilities are endless. I have done this project before with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders and the results were amazing, better than I ever dreamed. Some TM’s stayed in the US and others traveled to Paris, Canada, Africa, Ireland, England, Italy, Spain, and Austria. . . Many people went above and beyond and sent care packages. We got boxes of sea shells from Mexico and Florida, tons of pictures and maps, some even sent currency. I will also need help in other ways: · I know nothing about sewing; I will need lots of help making the backpacks. I have a pattern that Fran Wolf made up the first year I did this. She is also in our room this year and will be helping. · We will need donations of material. We used a stretchy denim material for the backpacks and some heavy-duty ribbon like material for the straps. · We will need donations for the notebooks. Keep reading the Walsh Weekly and the Wiki for more updates, []. Sincerely, Mrs. Walsh