The Great Canadian Mail Race

Here's an activity our class took part in: a postal mail activity that teaches how to write a letter and address an envelope. It's called the Great Canadian Mail Race, and it has been around for several years. Each student in our class wrote a letter about themselves and found a school – any elementary school outside of BC but in Canada – and addressed their letter to "Any Grade 4 class" or "Any Grade 2 class", etc., and today we will send off all the letters to see who gets a response first!

Here is my letter that goes along with all our student letters:

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Thursday  May 23, 2013

Dear colleagues,

My name is Mr. Paul Clarke. I'm a grade 4/5 teacher at Brooksbank Elementary School in North Vancouver, BC. I am writing this letter to introduce you to the Great Canadian Mail Race. This activity has been around for many years. This is the third time that I have participated. Here's how it works:

1. Read my student’s letter to your class.
2. Have one of your students respond to my student by sending a return letter.
3. Have each of your students write a similar letter to any grade 4 to 8 student in Canada. If you choose not to enter your class, simply return the letter to my student.
4. All of the students in your class can search on Google for a school to acquire the address and postal code.
5. Address the envelope as follows:

The Great Canadian Mail Race

Grade _ (fill in the grade you wish to write to)

School Name

Address

City, Province

Postal Code

6. When sending a letter, each envelope should contain the student’s letter plus a copy of your teacher letter (similar to this one) explaining how the race works.

Now the race is passed on to you! This is the race part… Whoever gets the fastest reply is the winner of the race in your class. This is a great way to introduce letter writing and get students excited to receive mail the old-fashioned way!

I hope you and your students participate in this wonderful and exciting experience. My students really enjoyed this activity and are looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Mr. Paul Clarke

Brooksbank Elementary School

980 E. 13th St.

North Vancouver, BC

V8L 2N2

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