Several students at Hoover Elementary got the chance to make connections, learn, and send love and kindness.
4th grade teachers Gabrielle Gugliuzza and Lisa Chiavaroli as well as 2nd grade teacher Kayla Lewandowski took on a Valentine’s exchange project where their classrooms sent and received valentines from across the country. In total, they exchanged with up to 25 schools – some as far as San Jose, California and some as close as right here in Upstate, New York.
“The project really helped our students to get to understand different school dynamics, locations, and realize that there are similarities, but also differences in schools across our country,” Gugliuzza said.
Each participating school sent a letter along with their valentines with details about their city, school life, extracurricular activities, and more. Gugliuzza, Chiavaroli, and Lewandowski then used Google Earth to look up the schools' location and checked out their school websites, comparing them to the Ken-Ton District page. Students then had the chance to reflect and create mini projects on Google Slides and posters, including interesting things they learned through the exchange.”
“It’s fun to exchange with our classmates, but to get the excitement and wait for a letter in the mail from someone and somewhere new was even more thrilling,” Gugliuzza said. “We think it was important to also emphasize on the spreading of love and kindness to other students that we’ve never met.”
The teachers hope the Valentine’s exchange project spreads throughout the school and that more classes will participate next year.
