Literacy Spot #27: Letter From a Character

The reason I love the Letter From a Character literacy idea is that it truly engages young children with purposeful reading and writing in a fun way. Choose the right character for your child or group of children and they will be excited, actively engaged and motivated to ‘read’ and ‘write.’

So what is this Letter From a Character I speak of?

To begin choose a character popular with your child, whether it be a commercial character or a more generic character such as a fairy or a dragon.  Then it is as simple as creating a letter from the character to send to your child or group of children. Make your correspondence inviting and your child is sure to want to write back.

If you like, you can find an image to use as a letterhead. Or think creatively and try something like this mini letter from a fairy, singe the edge of the paper from a dragon, write on a large leaf from a herbivorous dinosaur or jungle animal, or deliver the letter via a message in a bottle from a pirate.

When I worked in child care for 2-5 year olds I worked with the staff to create a friendly dragon character who wrote letters to each class of children. Each letter was modified to the age and interests of the children in the class and letters went back and forth to and from the children and the dragon for some months. Some of the highlights I remember are;

• Four and five year olds drawing maps and ‘writing’ directions (with the help of their educators) to help the dragon find the Centre should he wish to come and visit.
• Three year olds making lists of things a dragon might need to bring should he come to the Centre to visit
• Two and three year olds planning games they could play with a dragon and having to ‘write’ instructions (with the help of their educators) for how to play Duck, Duck, Goose when the dragon wrote to say he didn’t know how to play
• Little discoveries like the children arriving at the Centre one Monday morning to find a small suitcase filled with things from their list left in the yard – it appeared that the dragon had visited over the weekend when they were all at home (and a few of the items were singed slightly too, just so they knew it was the dragon!)
• Of course, this led to more letter writing to the dragon to explain why they weren’t there when he came to visit

As I said, this went on for some time. As a staff we finally agreed that it was time for a real visit from the dragon and we were delighted when one of the educators managed to organise for a large corporate mascot dragon make a surprise visit the Centre. It was lots and lots of fun.

I am sure that you can see the limitless learning potential of creating a correspondence with an interesting or beloved character related to the interests of a child or group of children. What you write in the letter from the character can help to direct the learning ~ if the character asks questions or sets challenges for the child, the children can respond, capture their responses through pictures or writing, and an ongoing correspondence can be entered into. You could use your character’s letters to;

• Set a challenge related to something the children are learning
• Ask creative questions to get the children thinking
• Share some interesting or exciting news
• Interest a child in learning a new skill
• Help them to overcome a fear or personal challenge
• Celebrate an achievement
• Invite correspondence

What character would your child be excited to receive a letter from?