GLEC Pen Pals Page

“Writing Letters - Making Friends” since 1985

last updated November 14, 2007

813 Pen Pals Matched

Thiry-six classes from Lawrence, Andover, North Andover and Methuen, representing 813 students from grades 1 through 7, have begun writing as GLEC Pen Pals. They will complete four round trips of letters between November and May. We are still looking to match a first grade class from Methuen and six sixth grade classes from Lawrence. Teachers, just click on the "signing up" tab to your left if you would like to be matched with one of these classes.

last updated September 7, 2007

GLEC Pen Pals is now open to grade 1-8 teachers from Lawrence, Andover, North Andover and Methuen. The sign up period is from September 19 through October 19, 2007. Click on the Pen Pals "Overview & Signing Up" tab to your left for all the information.

l-r: First grade teachers Rosemarie Castro (Tenney) Nancy Lundgren (Sanborn), Jane Kish (Sanborn) and Karen Godek (Tenney) with their students. Their classes corresponded as pen pals since November, exchanging four rounds of letters before meeting on June 11 at Tenney Grammar School.

First Round Trips Completed

All of the classes have now completed at least one round trip of letters. To mark this milestone, GLEC sent each student a pen pals pencil and words of encouragement to keep writing. 1/2/8/07

751 Pen Pals and Counting

We have matched about 80% of the teachers who were looking for another class to be pen pals with. More information will be coming soon which classes we are still trying to match. 11/10/06

Read about a Sanborn 2nd grade teacher's Pen Pal experience with a class at the Leahy School

last updated January 20, 2006

1/20/06: "The pen pals program is fabulous! We received two letters from our pen pals and we're in the process of responding. Nicole Slager's class writes terrific letters!"
– Martha Anderson-Keleher, whose grade 4 class at West Elementary School is matched with Nicole Slager's grade 4 class at South Lawrence East Elementary School.

4th Grade Pen Pal Class Found – 867 Students Now Matched – Send Us Some Items for the Pen Pals Page

With Ms. Michel's class at the A.B Bruce and Mr. McCall's class at the West Elementary now matched, more than 867 students are now corresponding as pen pals within Greater Lawrence through this program. We will be reporting various news items from the classes over the next three months. If your class has news or photos – not of actual students please, but of artwork, parts of letters suitable for publishing, things sent or received, classroom decorations, classroom animals, adults with permission – please send them to us and we will promote your pen pal project on this page.

This is old news from December 16, 2005:

822 Students Matched as GLEC Pen Pals

Still looking for a match for a 4th grade class of 23 students

December 16, 2005: Virtually all of the classes which signed up for pen pals have been matched, represented 822 students. See the participating teachers and schools. Is there a 4th grade class in Andover, Lawrence, North Andover or Methuen that would like to write a Lawrence 4th grade class of 23 students? If you are interested please get in touch with us. Correspondence can start in late January or early February and the commitment would be three or more round trips of letters.

October 18, 2005: Forty teachers, representing 856 students, from grades 1-6 have signed up for pen pals this year. In the next few days we will be matching these teachers. If you are teacher from Andover, Lawrence, North Andover or Methuen who has not yet registered, please download a form (see below) and get in touch with us ASAP to be part of this program.

Archive Pen Pals 2005-2006 Participating Teachers
Archive Pen Pals 2004-2005 Participating Teachers

Page Last Modified 11/14/07 12:09