Students in Spanish 5/6 at SM North and Spanish 6 at SM West came together through a yearlong pen pal relationship by creating and breaking piñatas together. The classes sent weekly emails in Spanish via email about a variety of topics.

“This was a fun way to communicate in an informal setting,” SM North Spanish 5/6 teacher Erin Meyer said.

The students met on Thursday, March 22 during seminar at SM North to begin construction of their piñatas. They then returned to their own schools to finish the papier-mâché and decorations. They then met on April 19 to break the piñatas at SM West. SM West resource officer, Jose Carrillo, joined the fun and taught the students a traditional song used when breaking piñatas.

“Making piñatas with the West kids was really cool,” junior Chelsea Willems said. “We got to communicate and connect with people from other schools in a new and fun way.”

Two of the students who met through the email exchange decided to become roommates at the University of Arkansas next year.

“We started as Spanish pen pals back at the beginning of the semester and we quickly realized we had a lot of mutual friends,” senior Cassie Wilson said. “We found out and we were both looking for roommates so we decided to meet for lunch. We got along so we decided to room together.”