Third-graders join in a “freeze dance” to a recording of the OSU fight song. The music stopped at irregular intervals and anyone still moving had to take a seat.
Bitty Buckeyes in Kevin Stone’s third-grade classroom at Sherman Elementary School met their Ohio State University-Mansfield pen pals Friday afternoon.
Stone’s 20 students have improved their writing skills by exchanging letters with eight First-Year Student Leaders at OSU.
“The kids have learned the structure of a friendly letter as part of language arts activities. They’ve written to the OSU students all year,” Stone said.
Friday’s two-hour gathering was what Stone called “a culminating event” to the writing project. Besides meeting with the OSU students to discuss their letters, the third-graders joined in a variety of activities, including making OSU key-chain bracelets, playing OSU bingo and “freeze dancing” to the OSU fight song.
“The kids wrote a lot of questions about college that they wanted to ask,” Stone said. “It’s not too early to get them thinking about college.”
The afternoon also was a community-involvement opportunity for the OSU group, all of whom are freshmen. As First-Year Student Leaders, they have displayed leadership styles in and out of the classroom.
In addition to the Bitty Buckeye pen pal program, the students have participated in Destination Mansfield, Campus Visit Days and Leader Richland.