Correspondence from across the country helps Northwest kindergartners fill in a map of the USA
Where is Rhode Island?
The kindergarten students at Northwest Elementary could color the state in on their map of the USA – if only they had a postcard or letter from someone who lives there. The littlest state is also – as of Thursday morning – the last, the missing piece in the students’ quest to collect a mailing from a resident of each of the 50 states, a project that aims to teach them about the geography of the country and some interesting facts behind each state name.
Maybe it’s fitting that Rhode Island’s motto is Hope.
“We’re hoping,” said Karen Croom, one of Northwest’s five kindergarten teachers and the originator of the project. “If we don’t get it soon, I don’t know what we’re going to do. We got Hawaii and we can’t get Rhode Island? It’s like right here. We could drive to Rhode Island. Come on, people.”
Back in early February, Croom and her kindergarten colleagues began soliciting the mailings through their students’ parents, through co-workers and through social media. A letter that went home to parents explained the project “centers around several of our social studies standards using simple maps and globes.”
Plus, it’s just fun. “The children are excited about getting the cards,” Croom said. “If something comes in the mail, we have to stop what we’re doing and read it.”
Much has come in the mail, not only multiple missives from most states but also gifts that say something about the state and the thought the sender put into fulfilling the kindergartners’ request. Hawaii sent some food items the youngsters found “interesting.” Maine sent magazines and a small bottle of syrup. Croom’s cousin in Philadelphia sent a children’s book about the city. Wyoming sent beachballs and stickers. In Delaware, every child in a fourth-grade class penned a postcard.
“About half (of the mailings) come from people who saw our request on social media and about half have a connection to Northwest,” Croom said. “We’ve received many cards from people who grew up in Kinston and moved away.”
Two cards postmarked Georgia came from former Northwest students. Kentucky’s contribution came from a former school resource officer at Rochelle Middle School. Dr. Deb Winings, a
former administrator with Lenoir County Public Schools, added to the mailbag from Pennsylvania, where she now lives. Alaska’s contribution has included a Lenoir County native serving in the military there.
If there’s been a complication – other than Rhode Island’s absence – it’s been with postcards themselves. They are apparently out of fashion. Even if people know what they are, they may not know where to find them. Adrian Murray, a retired educator who’s returned to Northwest, has a brother in Colorado who had to clear that hurdle to help with the 50-state project.
“My brother wanted to send a postcard, but he couldn’t find a postcard,” she said. “So he went to one of those packaging places, like UPS, and they made him a postcard that says Denver.”
That one-of-a-kind postcard went up on the wall in the common area shared by the kindergarten classes, where scores of cards and letters from across the country surround a map of the states colored in rainbow hues. Except for that little white spot east of Connecticut and south of Massachusetts.
Ever hopeful, Croom thinks she has a line on a couple of Rhode Island contacts. She believes it’s only a matter of time before the Ocean State rises to the occasion. And when that time comes?
“My kids will scream and holler.”
Kindergarten teacher Karen Croom and some of her students at Northwest Elementary show off a few of the postcards they’ve collected in their quest to get a mailing from each of the 50 states.
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