Penfriend Project 2011-2012

This is the second year we send letters to Spanish students of IES Vega del Guadalete in La Barca de la Florida, Spain. 

The main aims of the project are:
- to create contacts with European students;
- to improve the use of English as a Foreign Language;
- to create real chances to use English;
- to write letters (using pens and paper!) to discover the pleasure of talking about oneself, of knowing other people, of receiving letters.

Some weeks ago 3rd year students and I created a prompt for the first letter to send to our Spanish friends.

Writing a letter

Your address

Date

Dear friend,

Opening greetings

Text of the letter

Closing greetings

Example

Via I Maggio, 1

05024 Giove

12th October 2011

Dear friend,

- How are you? / Is everything ok?

- I'm fine / I'm ok. I hope you are fine too.

• My name is ….
• I’m …. years old and I’m a boy/girl.
• I live in Giove. Giove is a small village in Umbria and it is near Rome. In Giove you can see……….
• I’m tall/short and slim/plump, I have got blue/brown/dark eyes and long/short straight/curly/spiky brown/blond/dark hair.
• I’m generous/shy/lively/talkative/friendly, nice/lazy/kind/unfriendly/happy/bad-tempered/a sportsman
• In my family there are … members: my mum, my dad, my brother, my sister ……

My mum is a housewife, my dad is a doctor.

• In my free time I play football. I play it three times a week on Monday, Tuesday and Friday/everyday. My favourite football team is Juventus and my favourite football player is Vidal. I like him because I think he is a good player.
• I have dance lessons, watch TV, listen to music, play cards, meet friends ……
• I like listening to music and my favourite singer/band is……..I don’t like ……
• My favourite actor/actress, ………
• I often wear black jeans/skirt/…. and white t-shirt/jumper…
• I have got two dogs: Pinco and Pallino.
• I go to school everyday from Monday to Friday. My favourite subjects are ……… I don’t like ……. because ……
• And what about you?
• Who’s your favourite singer …..?
• Have you got brothers and sisters?
• Have you got pets?
• Do you like going to school?
• Can you send me your photo?

• That’s it for now.

Write soon.

Bye bye.

Then each student personalized the letter at home, I corrected it and they copied the letter using writing paper. 

 Yesterday morning I went to the post office and sent the first letters!

The project has officially started,

on board!