Parts of a Letter

Hi everyone! Lisa here .

Today I wanted to post about writing letters. Not the letters in the alphabet but letters to people .

In my classroom, the kiddos write letters to everyone- me (about their reading), characters, authors, teachers, friends, etc. It used to drive me crazy when they would turn in their rough draft and it would be missing the date or the closing or the signature . I made anchor charts galore but some still would forget. I made a checklist, but they would still forget. What drove me completely bonkers was that they would forget on their final copy too!

Quite a few years ago, I found a friendly letter song on the internet. It goes to the tune of "The Adams Family". It is awesome and easy to remember. The kiddos put a copy of the song in their Reading Notebook. And when they forget on their rough drafts, I just hum the beginning of the song. They fix that puppy up lickedy split!

Last week I read Mrs. Laffin's Laughings post on friendly letters. She teaches her students to use movements. So cool!  Now we can sing and dance so this lesson just got kicked up a notch!

I did not create any part of this song and dance . I'm just sharing. If you want to see Mrs. Laffin's post just click HERE. This is the song- with the movements modified to go with the tune =)

5 Parts of a Letter (to the tune of "Adams Family")

The five parts of a letter     (hold up five fingers)
Are easy to remember       (point to your brain)
Heading                            (pat the top of your head)
Greeting                            (move your hand from your mouth outwards)
Body                                (wiggle your body from shoulders to hips)
Closing                             (pat your knees)
Signature                          (stomp each foot)

Parts of a letter                 (snap, snap)
Parts of a letter                 (snap, snap)
Parts of letter, parts of letter, parts of a letter    (snap, snap).

Later this week, I will post a freebie- this song!