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Union and Dobbins pen pals unite
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Neighbors | Shaiyla Hakeem .Third-graders from Dobbins' Debbie Patsko and Union's Missy Kountz classes met each other for the first time Monday and shared lunch together. The two classes communicated through handwritten letters as pen pals.
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Neighbors | Shaiyla Hakeem .Dobbins' Robbie Murray (left), Union's Audra Lambert, Dobbins' Vincent Carney and Union's Ian Lu were pen pals and Monday was their first time seeing one another. They made signs so they would be able to locate one another.
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Neighbors | Shaiyla Hakeem .Third-graders from Dobbins wave as their pen pals from Union Elementary leave to return to their school. The students had been writing each other for months.
Instead of sending e-mails and instant messages, third-graders from Dobbins and Union Elementary schools took a more traditional route to communicate with each other.
The third-grade classes of Dobbins’ Debbie Patsko and Union’s Missy Kountz met for the first time Monday during a school picnic at Dobbins. Since no one knew what their pals looked like, the students made signs displaying their pen pal’s name. As Union students exited the school bus, they had to scramble to find their pen pal. The students had been writing each other for months.
The pen pal activity began several years ago when Kountz’s daughter, Logan, was in Patsko’s class. The teachers thought it would be a good idea for the third-graders to communicate with each other. Patsko said having pen pals at Union served several purposes for the students.
“Not only does it introduce the students to a person they will meet when they enter fifth grade at McKinley, but it covers several of the Ohio Writing standards,” she said.
The students spent lunch periods together and were able to finally talk face-to-face.
Dobbins’ Robbie Murray said he didn’t know his pen pal at Union Elementary before they began writing each another. He liked having a pen pal because he made a new friend.
“We got to get the letters and read them and then finally see what they looked like,” Murray said.