Some even got out of their seats to celebrate.

Students in Lisa Dinger’s sixth grade class at Beaty-Warren Middle School were excited to receive letters from their pen pals.

The letters from Valladolid, Spain, arrived late last week. It was the fourth letter of the year for her students.

And it was cause for celebration.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Logan Anderson reads a letter from his pen pal in Spain while Braedyn Knupp and Haley Stimmell share the details of their letters in Lisa Dinger’s language arts class at Beaty-Warren Middle School.

“We’ve worked really hard on our other letters and I was really looking forward to getting another one,” Lelia Barmes said.

“It’s about talking to other people from other countries and being able to communicate with them,” Dehklund Conklin said. “I get to communicate with somebody I’ve never met.”

After the students read the letters from Spain, they got to work on their responses.

They have to write a rough draft — their letters are setting examples for non-primary English speakers and Dinger wants them to make a good impression.

“We’re teaching them how to write proper English,” Dinger said. “Their grammar is interesting.”

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Annabel Smith starts writing a letter to her pen pal, Maria, in Valladolid, Spain, after the class received the latest round of letters.

Both sets of students write their letters in English. But, there are still some communications snags, sometimes. In Spanish, sentences that are questions start and end with question marks. So, sometimes an upside-down question mark will be seen at the beginning of a sentence in some of the letters.

Some words are just not familiar. And, the Spanish students usually write in cursive — a practice that is not as frequently used here.

The writing part of the educational process isn’t what gets kids cheering.

Asked how they felt about receiving the letters, responses included “happy” and “10 out of 10.” “Someone from far away knows me.”

“It’s from somewhere that we’re not.”

“We’re leaning new things about their culture.”

“I tell Lola about what it looks like here, my favorite parts of town, and our favorite things to do,” Barmes said. “She told me she likes to play video games.”

“The kids enjoy it,” Dinger said. “It’s important for them to learn about other cultures.”

The last letter was sent right around Valentine’s Day and the American kids decorated hearts and used that theme to ask about holidays. The Spanish students reported that Valentine’s Day isn’t a big deal for them.

But, they do celebrate Carnival in February or March. The Beaty students were jealous — Carnival is a major celebration, with costumes, and two days off of school.

Connor Smith received a letter from a new pen pal on Monday.

His first pen pal, Christina, moved away, according to the letter from Elisa.

“She says she likes to ride horses,” Smith said. “And her favorite food is ice cream.”

Maria asked her pen pal, Annabel Smith, several questions — favorite song, favorite thing to do, favorite food and candy, and favorite day of the week. “She’s into pop music,” Annabel Smith said.

In addition to answering questions and asking some of her own, she asked Maria for other means of contacting her. “I asked her for her Snap or anything else.”

“This is the learning excitement you want,” Dinger said. “If the kids have questions, we look it up.”

All of Dinger’s students have pen pals. “This is the first year that all my classes have been able to participate,” she said.

Heather (Weirich) Espeso, originally of Warren, teaches English at United Cultures Language School — www.unitedcultures.es — in Valladolid about 130 miles northwest of Madrid.

“I have been living and teaching in Spain since 2006,” Espeso said. “When I opened my own language school in 2014 I thought it would be fun to connect my students in Spain who were learning English with students from my hometown.”

“I got in touch with some teachers in the area and they helped me set up — together with Lisa Dinger and Dena Pearson — a wonderful Pen Pal Program which hundreds of students have been able to participate in.”

The program has been going on for years.

“I have a student in eighth grade who still writes to her pen pal,” Dinger said.

Marley Merritt has kept up with her letters and other communications with Marina.

“It’s fun to see the differences in the places,” Merritt said. “We talk about different things we’re learning in school. The food is very different. It looks very different – they use a lot of different spices.”

Marley and Marina are set for a FaceTime this weekend, she said. Live communications have to be scheduled due to the time difference.

“Marley sent me a really nice email,” Dinger said. “‘Thank you for that wonderful opportunity.'”

“Without her introducing us, I wouldn’t be able to talk to her and we wouldn’t be as close,” Merritt said.

While the sixth-graders generally turn around the letters in two days, it takes the second-graders in Pearson’s class a little longer to respond.

“It is one of my favorite projects as it not only brings two cultures that are close to my heart together, it also helps to create cultural understanding between the American and Spanish culture,” Espeso said. “The students look forward to receiving their letters from their American friends. We try to respond as quickly as possible so we can mail them back to the U.S. as we know the American students are anxiously waiting for the responses to their letters.”

The students’ responses on Monday carried some surprising details.

“They usually want to know about the weather,” Connor Smith said.

The Warren students were able to report more than an inch of snow on the ground.

In addition to exchanging letters, Espeso brings students to the United States. In July, she’ll be looking for some local families to host students during their four-week visit.