Third grade students in Elizabeth Parco’s class at Marion Street Elementary School recently turned this significant time in history into a reflective lesson. Her class was challenged to write letters to students 75 years in the future describing their experiences while living through the COVID-19 pandemic. Each student provided a brief explanation about COVID-19 and then shared what they personally experienced or felt. Many students spoke about the challenges they have endured during the pandemic such as not seeing friends and sports getting cancelled.

“You have to practice social distancing,” third grader John Esposito wrote in his paper. “That means you have to stay six feet away from people because the virus is very contagious. I used to go to baseball practice and soccer practice but now I can’t.” Some students also penned their feelings about not physically being in school and how closures have affected them.

“To avoid people from getting sick, a lot of restaurants, movie theatres, shopping centers and schools were closed,” third grader Taylor Gonzalez wrote in her paper. “This made me really sad because I could not go to school. I missed my teachers and friends.”

The assignment was a great way to get students to open up about their own experiences and recognize the historical time period they are living in.