From Houston to Bogotá, Colombia

Connection is one of HGOco's fundamental philosophies, especially in our Song of Houston series.  Today's post highlights the work of 4th Grade students at Neff Elementary, who have chosen to become pen pals with schoolchildren from Bogotá, Colombia.

These enterprising young Neff students have planned a year's worth of various forms of communication, including an introductory letter, a holiday card, a postcard (hand-drawn) of Houston, a February friendship card, an acrostic poem and a goodbye letter.  This fun-filled work involves curricular goals from the social studies TEKS and will help students improve their fluency and literacy (two of their Smart Goals), resulting in better classroom participation and improved test scores.

We sent the first batch of correspondence a week or so ago - 154 letters in total for students and staff alike.  Some of the students agreed to share copies of their first letters with us.  You can see a few samples on the Neff Fridge on our website.  Enjoy!

This work is part of our Song of Houston project celebrating Mexico 2010.  For more info on the entire project, visit our Mexico 2010 webpage.