Literacy Event

My literacy event took several unexpected turns. Thankfully I had another NWP member at my school, Courtney Crimm, to help with all the stress that came planning this event. Originally, we planned for our event to happen on Thursday, February 11th. We involved 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade students. The assignment was to work with their parents and write a Valentine’s letter to residents in local nursing homes to let them know someone is thinking of them on this special holiday. Days before the event, we hung a Valentine’s themed backdrop in the hallway and took the students picture in front of it with a few photo booth props. We planned on including this picture with the card so the residents could put a face with a name. On the day of the event, the students would bring their letter to school and Courtney and I worked with them on copying the letter down inside of a card and decorating it. We had rooms decorated in red, white and pink, custom Valentine’s Day cookies ordered and ready to hand out, and we were pumped for our event! Unfortunately our event had to be put off due to city water issues, and then we had a huge snow storm (which never happens in Texas!) so we were out of school for 2 full weeks. Finally, on March 23rd, we were able to have our event. We had to change a few aspects of it though, considering Valentine’s Day was already over with. We asked the parents to help their child write another letter to the residents of a local nursing home, but this time about their snowstorm/no water or power experience. The plan was to hopefully get a pen pal system going with a few of the residents and our students. We really stressed to our students how hard it has been for the residents during Covid and that they need an extra act of love during this time. The result was amazing!! Our parents really supported our cause and did an amazing job helping their child create intentional and heartfelt letters. On the day of our event, the students had so much fun making the final copy of their letter and being able to use all of our art supplies to make them as bright and colorful as possible. Thankfully, we had some money left over so we bought cookies from our school cafeteria and delivered them to the participating classes at the end of the day. Even with all of the unexpected twists and turns, this was such an amazing experience to be apart of. The event was a success overall!