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Lesson
Title/Focus

Class #1: Friendly Letter Writing

Monday November 21st, 2017
35 minutes

Course

Grade 6 Language
Arts

PROGRAM OF STUDY OUTCOMES

1.1 -Engage in exploratory communication to share personal responses and develop own
interpretations
1.12 - Experiment with a variety of forms of oral, print and other media texts to discover
those best suited for exploring, organizing and sharing ideas, information and
experiences
1.2 - Use talk, notes, personal writing and representing, together with texts and the ideas
of others, to clarify and shape understanding

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of how to format a friendly letter.
2. Create a plan for the structure and content of their letters.

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

SMART Board

Sample letter of introduction

Powerpoint to follow the lesson
Assignment handout
Planning guide

PREPARATION AND LOGISTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Have copies of letter, handout and planning guide

Have more guidelines and suggestions for students who need it
Create sample letter
Have plans for extra time
Have online resources up and ready to go
Partners will be those sitting next to each other

PROCEDURE
Introduction

Time

Welcome students to the class

Students start off by journaling, prompts are provided that relate to the topic.
Pass out the letter-writing handout.

Body
Introduction

1. Introduce students to friendly letters: Whole class

discussion: What are friendly letters? What are they used
for? Who can use them?
2. Use online resource to generate a letter as a class to teach

Time
5 min

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students about formatting.

Example

Planning

1. Provide students with my example letter and read it as a

class.
2. Have students identify the components of the example
letter in partners.
1. Hand out the planning guide.
2. Have students begin planning their letters, go around to
help and make sure they know what they are doing
3. Students who finish their planning can either start working
on a rough draft or read.

Conclusion

Check that all students have a start to their planning and mention that we will
begin working on rough drafts in the following class.

Assessment

Identification of components of letter (Learning objective #1)

Planning guide (Learning objective #2)

Additional Notes:

20 min

20 min

Time
5 minutes

Introduction Letter Planning Guide

Name: ________________________
What is it?
Friendly letters are a form of writing used to communicate between two people. A few things they can be
used for is to share news and information, to ask questions, or to say thank you.
Some examples:
A letter to friends and family
Postcards
Thank you notes
A letter to a pen pal
A letter to an author
An invitation
What does it look like?
There are a couple different styles for writing letters. We are going to focus on using a block style for this
class. A block style means that everything is lined up on the left side of the page and the paragraphs
have spaces between them instead of being indented. A properly addressed envelope is also an
important part of writing letters.
How do you write a friendly letter?
There are several components that need to be included when writing letters.
1. The inside address, or heading this is the address of the person who is sending the letter
2. The date

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3. A greeting a letter should start with Dear and then the name of the person it is being sent to,
followed by a comma
4. The body this is the part that has all the thoughts, ideas, information and questions. There
should be a new paragraph every time there is a new idea or story.
5. The closing a letter should end with a closing such as sincerely, your friend, with love, or
something else appropriate. It should be followed with a comma, and on the line below is the
signature of the sender.
6. The forwarding address this belongs in the center of the envelope and is the address of the
person receiving the letter. The address should be in 3 lines, the first is the name of the receiver,
the second is the street address, and the third is the city, province and postal code. The address
should be lined up on the left margin.
7. The return address this belongs in the top left corner and is the address of the person
sending the letter. This address should be formatted the same way as the forwarding address.

Example:
At the back of this booklet is an example of a friendly letter that I have written for you. After we read the
letter, you can work in partners to identify the components of the letter. To do this, you can either
underline in pencil crayon or highlight the parts of the letter with the following colours
Red: Greeting
Orange: Date
Yellow: Return address
Green: Inside address

Blue: Closing
Purple: Body
Pink: Forwarding address

Now its your turn!

Now that you know how to write a friendly letter, you can write a reply to my letter. These letters are
meant for you to introduce yourselves to me, so I can get to know you all a little better.
First, use the planning guide to make sure you have all of the components of your letter, and
to create an outline for the body.
Next, write a rough draft of your letter in your writing scribbler.
When you have finished your letter, find someone else who you can exchange with and do
some peer editing.
Once you have revised your letter, you can write your final copy.
When your letter is finished, put it in an envelope, address the envelope, and put it in my
mailbox.

123 3 Ave W
Lethbridge, AB T1J 3Y6

November 21st, 2016

Dear 6A students,
Good morning, how are you? I want to use this letter to introduce myself to you so that
you can learn a little about me and I can learn more about you.
As you already know, my name is Miss.Gust and I am a university student studying to become a
teacher. I am 27 years old, and from Lethbridge, Alberta. I have two older brothers, the are
twins. What about you, where were you born? How old are you? Do you have any siblings?
I have lived in Canada for most of my life, but I also enjoy travelling. I spent the last two and a
half years travelling the world. I lived in Thailand for one year and seven months. I taught
English in Thailand and I worked at four different schools teaching. My favourite things to do in
Thailand were to ride my scooter, and eat fresh fruit everyday. There were many stray dogs on
the streets in Thailand, this was sometimes sad to see because I love dogs. I volunteered at a
dog shelter in Thailand and helped rescued dogs, there were over 200 dogs at the shelter. Do
you like animals? What is your favourite animal?
After I lived in Thailand I moved to Australia and lived there for 10 months. I saw very large
spiders in Australia, and I touched a kangaroo up close. Do you like to travel? If you could travel
to anywhere in the world, where would you go? Where have you travelled before?
In my spare time I like to listen to music, and hang out with my friends. I especially like watching
live music and dancing with my friends. I like to go camping and spend time outside. What is
your favourite thing to do with your friends?
Now you know a few things about me.Is there anything else that you want to know about me?
Feel free to ask me any questions you have about me and I would be happy to reply. What
additional things would you like to tell me about yourself? Thank you for reading my letter, I look
forward to hearing your response and learning all about you!

Yours sincerely,
Miss Gust

Introduction Letter Planning Guide

Name: ________________
Use this page to show your understanding of the components of a friendly letter and to organize
your ideas.
Inside Address (your
address)

Date

Greeting

Closing

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Body
Beginning 1 paragraph to briefly
let me know who you are and why
you are writing the letter

Middle 2 or 3 paragraphs giving

me details and facts about yourself
and answering any questions from
my letter

End 1 paragraph to summarize

the letter and say you look forward
to a reply

Fill in the return address and the forwarding address (look at the example) on this envelope.