Smith-Cotton Junior High And Heber Hunt Elementary Pen Pals Meet At Liberty Park

English Speakers of Other Languages students at Heber Hunt Elementary School and Smith-Cotton Junior High wrote pen pal letters to each other through the school year to help build their writing and language skills. On Tuesday, May 12, about 70 students and their teachers gathered at Liberty Park for a picnic and an opportunity to meet face-to-face. The students shared pizza and cookies, made chalk drawings and played soccer together. Heber Hunt ESOL teacher Karmen Butler said she enjoyed watching some of her former students, who now are at the junior high, playing with their elementary pen pals. “They were very compassionate towards the little kids.  They pushed their pen pals on the swings, played soccer with them, blew bubbles and played basketball with them.” Butler said that through the pen pal program, “My students gained a better understanding of letter writing and how to express themselves through writing.  Their faces lit up each time they received a letter from their pen pals.”

(Courtesy of Sedalia School District)