How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? Swapping mail means my students have a better understanding of writing for a purpose. Their writing is more focused as a result. They also love reading the poems other people put together and seeing the similarities/differences.

“Hugely engaging and enough challenge for all levels in my class. Kids LOVED creating word banks for their poems and exploring different words (e.g. scientific names for dinosaurs, names of other crystals etc) and putting these together.”

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Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? Lots of talking and keen to display their mail too.

“So enthusiastic they wanted to stay in at lunch time! The boys even more than the girls. They were fascinated with building word walls that could be turned into a poem. I'm glad I didn't say they were writing poems at the beginning as they were really engaged and then happily surprised when they discovered what they could do.”

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Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? This is what excited the students the most, the fact that they were writing a poem to another child somewhere in NZ and were going to receive one from them.

“This was a fun way to engage the students into poetry at the beginning of the year. They were so excited about opening the kit and learning about what was happening around NZ. I personally found the instructions a little brief and hard to follow, I somehow misinterpreted that the kit items were to be used for the postcard poems and had the students write about anything that they were interested in. But, I don't think this mattered to the final result, as they were so proud of the poems that they posted.”

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Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? They were so excited to get the mail from another school. Especially the poster with all their personal information and words. In the words of one boy ‘ their classroom is much more interest than ours”. We will display our new postcard puzzle on the windo

“Our class was very intrigued by the tin box and loved seeing the items for the first time. It was a great way to explore those descriptive words and learn how to use a thesaurus properly.”

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Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? Our swap class parcel arrived really promptly and the children loved reading what other children had to say and compared ideas. It was a pity the teacher had written all the cards for the class as my children although only year 3 had made a good go at do

“The children really loved the items in the box and I am sure they will give us lots to write about for the rest of the year. It was so good to have a change from previous years and the words generated by this activity were fantastic - really got us thinking.”

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Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? I have not received mail yet. I only sent my courier bag away on Tuesday, today is Thursday. NZ Post/NZ Couriers are not that fast.

“A tight time frame. A lot of pressure. I do not feel my children's writing was enhanced by the experience due to the tight time frame.”

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Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? All children loved the fact that their work was going to be sent to another class in NZ, it gave their work a greater purpose and it was clear to see it gave them a huge sense of pride in their work. Would definitely do an activity like this again!

“My students absolutely loved creating their postcards and swapping sticky words around to make the best poem they could. Decorating the back was an added bonus!”

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Posted 6 years ago

How did the swapping of mail with another class add value to the GNZW experience? Gave the writing an authentic purpose. There was great excitement when our parcel arrived today!!

“An excellent writing process with purpose. Children were fully engaged every step of the way. Great lesson sequence too. Focus on descriptive vocabulary was great.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

Get NZ Writing 19 Reviews