Educators and homeschool parents always seek meaningful, engaging ways to help upper-elementary students deepen their writing skills. These postcard writing activities and friendly letter templates involve completing worksheets. Wouldn’t it be powerful to offer writing tasks that feel purposeful and authentic? These postcard writing practices and travel brochures do exactly that. Combining friendly-letter writing, descriptive and persuasive writing, and travel-themed creativity gives students a real outlet for meaningful communication.
In this post, you’ll discover how two ready-to-use resources can transform your writing time:
A free, friendly letter postcard template
A postcard + travel-brochure writing activity for 4th-5th grade
You’ll also get ideas for using them in class or at home, how they align with standards and writing goals, and tips for maximizing student engagement.
Postcard Writing Activities with Friendly Letter Templates
1. Friendly-Letter Postcard Template
This freebie offers a postcard template for students to draw a destination and write a friendly letter on the back.
A model/example showing how to address the postcard and where to put the return address.
Skills addressed:
1. Friendly-letter structure (greeting, body, closing).
2 . Descriptive and sensory writing.
3.Persuasive/creative thinking (selling a destination, telling about experiences).
Ideal for:
•Writing centers, warm-ups, or short, compact projects.
•Homeschool settings where you want a one-sheet, low-prep writing activity.
•Integrating art + writing (students draw the destination, design the stamp).
2. Postcards Writing Activity + Travel Brochure (4th-5th Grade)
The second resource is “Postcard writing activity Template and Travel Brochure to learn how to write a fun friendly letter.
What it includes:
- Teacher directions & student instructions.
- 9 premade postcard templates (e.g., Paris, New York, Big Bend, Great Wall) plus blank postcard templates for students’ destinations.
- A word bank for postcard writing (greetings, closings, descriptive words).
- A travel-brochure component: trifold and flat-page templates.
- A travel journal (3-day writing activity with prompts and space to draw).
- Friendly letter reference page.
- Tips for great travel writing.
Skills addressed:
1. Friendly letter writing
2. Descriptive & sensory writing (capturing experiences).
3. Persuasive writing (selling a destination, convincing a reader why they should go).
4. Research & creative thinking (if students research a real destination or invent their own). Organization & sequencing (travel journal prompts, brochure structure).
Ideal for:
•End-of-year projects, writing centers, early finishers.
•Cross-curricular ELA + Social Studies lessons (geography + writing).
•Bulletin board displays (“Around the World with Our Class!”) or homeschool portfolios.
How to Implement a Friendly Letter Template in Your Classroom or Homeschool
Here are steps and tips to get the most from these resources:
Step 1: Introduce the Purpose
Explain to students that they will become travel writers, designing postcards and brochures, writing to an audience about a destination, persuading someone to “visit,” or telling about an experience.
You might show a few real-life postcards or travel brochures as models.
Step 2: Choose the Resource Level
•If you want a quick, single-sheet activity: use the friendly-letter postcard template.
•For a more in-depth project: use the postcard + travel-brochure kit.
Step 3: Model the Format
Use the examples included to show greeting, body, and closing for letter writing. Talk about the importance of descriptive details, sensory words (sight, sound, smell), and persuasive language (“You’ll love the view!”, “Don’t miss…”).
Use the brochure layout to show headings, bullets, images, and persuasive copy.
Step 4: Student Work Time
Allow students to pick a destination (real or imaginary).
Have them design the front of the postcard or the brochure imagery.
Then they write:
•On the postcard: a friendly letter describing their travel, experience, or invitation.
•On the brochure: persuasive copy to convince someone to visit, plus facts/description.
You can include timeline/journal prompts (for the 3-day journal) to build additional reflection.
Step 5: Share & Display
Let students share their postcards or brochures with classmates or family. This adds motivation and gives an audience beyond the teacher.
Step 6: Reflect & Assess
Have short reflection questions: What was your favorite part? Which descriptive word did you choose and why? What persuasive strategy did you use?
Use a rubric that addresses friendly-letter structure, descriptive language, persuasive techniques, and overall presentation.
Tips for Homeschool, Tutoring, or Center Activities
•Pair the activity with a geography lesson: pick a country or landmark, research one fact, then write.
•Use the templates as a multistep project over several days: e.g., Day 1: design/draw; Day 2: writing; Day 3: share.
•Adjust complexity: For younger or reluctant writers, limit the use of the postcard only and give scaffolded sentence starters.
•Extend the project: Have students “mail” their postcards to a grandparent or pen pal for real-audience feedback.
Concluding Thoughts
Helping students write with purpose is one of the greatest gifts we can give them. Postcard writing activities can help writing become meaningful. When students design a travel brochure or write a postcard to a friend, their motivation and depth of writing often soar. With these two postcard resources, you have well-designed, friendly letter templates that save prep time and deliver strong learning outcomes.
Whether in a classroom of 25 or guiding a homeschool learner, you can confidently say: “Today, we’re travel writers!” Your students will improve their friendly letter format and descriptive and persuasive writing, and get excited about writing as communication.
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