The Postal Service and educational publisher Scholastic have again teamed up to promote letter writing as a critical English language skill for U.S. schoolchildren.
This year’s edition of the initiative — designed for students in grades 3 and 4 — is known as “Show Someone You Care.”
Classroom materials were distributed in March, and they have been supplemented this month with lessons geared toward remote learning to support teachers, parents and students at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Online resources include templates and activity sheets for eight daily topics: letters of gratitude, writing to an elder, letters across the distance, writing to a favorite author, letters of encouragement, writing to pen pals, letters of celebration and letters of reflection.
The lessons not only encourage self-expression around those topics, they also cover life skills such as properly addressing an envelope, buying and using stamps, and mailing cards and letters.
Among the templates online are printable greeting cards provided by Hallmark.
Over the years, the partnership with Scholastic has allowed the Postal Service to reach around 90,000 teachers and 3 million students annually.
“Right now, the social bonds reflected in letter writing are more important than ever,” said USPS Brand Marketing Executive Director Chris Karpenko. “We’re always excited to see new generations embrace handwritten letters as a way to share love, show thanks and build meaningful connections.”
