The race is on! But it’s not a typical race, it’s a race against time and receiving letters and information from a school in each of the 50 states in the United States.

Students in 4th grade at Erving Elementary School put their social studies skills to the test when they were selected by a class in Honolulu, Hawaii to participate in what is known as the “Great Mail Race.”

Students from Kaewai Elementary in Honolulu, Hawaii, sent a letter teaching the Erving students about Hawaii and in turn asked to teach them about Michigan.

“The students were very excited because at the same time, we were learning about the five regions of the United States,” said Stacey Burger, 4th grade teacher. “It was a little late in the year for us to be starting the Great Mail Race for our school, but we decided to give it a try anyways.”

Burger teaches social studies to all four of the fourth grade classrooms, so right away they began working on the project. Since the students began the race so late in the school year, they didn't have enough time for every student to write a letter, so each class brainstormed a solution to come up with ideas to participate. The students talked about the most important things to teach out-of-state students about being a 4th grader in Michigan, and how to choose the schools that they would send letters to.

Soon, the Great Mail Race Team was formed with 10 students who worked in groups of two to complete their jobs to move the project forward. One job was to choose 50 schools (one from each state) to send our Michigan facts and request that they teach us about their state in return. A second job was to illustrate everything that represents Michigan. Another job was to write a letter describing the Great Mail Race and themselves as a 4th grade student in Michigan. The last job was to create a Google document that listed everything the students learned in Michigan by subject.

In each class, every student completed a puzzle piece to connect together to create a map of the U.S. The students hung one in the hallway and in each classroom to track the letters as they came back from each state.

“The kids learned how to work together as a team and so much more of all 50 states,” Burger said. “The students learned more about making Google docs, researching schools online, and addressing and stamping envelopes. We are really excited about this project and hope we receive more letters.”

Erving Elementary School

Erving Students Participate in the “Great Mail Race”