Lesson Plan

• Share with the class a friendly email that you have recently received. Ask students if they have ever received or sent a friendly email. Ask if they have family members who send and receive emails. Discuss how an email can be like a note sent on a computer. It can also be as important as a letter, which they will be learning about next.
• Read page 36 of the chapter aloud, pointing out the parts of the email message and relating them to the parts of the note that they did in the last chapter. Then read the email message on the second page to your class. Ask these questions:
  • Who is sending the email?
  • Who is receiving the email?
  • What is the email about?
  • Why is the sender sending it?
• Help students understand that all emails have a sender who writes them, a receiver who reads them, a subject (what the email is about), and a reason or purpose (why the sender is sending the message).

Classroom Applications

Large Group

• Read and discuss the model email. Ask students to imagine being Uncle Marco. How would they want to respond to Paco? Discuss different types of responses. Then use “Planning My Email” to help students think of what Uncle Marco might write in response. Use “Friendly Email” to let them write responses as a warm-up activity for writing their own emails.

Pairs

• Place children in pairs. Ask them to talk about who they would like to send emails to. (They should each have a person in mind.) Have them also talk about two or three things they could write about, and why they want to write to the person. Then they can help each other fill in “Planning My Email.”

Individual

• Using their planning sheets, ask students to write rough drafts with “Friendly Email.” Remind them to complete all parts of the email. When they are finished, check with them to be sure their messages make sense. Then help them correct errors in spelling and punctuation. (They can do this with you or with a capable partner.)
• Help them to type a final copy into the classroom email account. Add a note of your own at the beginning, addressing the child's parent or guardian: "Your child composed this email in class. If you would like to send it along to the person he or she is addressing, please do so and encourage a response." Send the messages to the parent or guardian.
• Share any responses with the student writers, and invite any students who want to share their responses with the class to do so.