CENTRAL FALLS — Six-year-old Johnny Pina has a letter folded up four times that he carefully opens like a treasure box to show other people.

It’s a picture drawn in the linear fashion that shows a person with a big round object in his hand in front of a row of smaller thin oblong objects. The letter says, “Thank you for keeping us safe.” It’s a drawing of his dad, John Pina, 27, bowling. “My dad loves bowling,” he says. “I wish he was here. He is coming home to see us.”

Johnny’s dad has been training with the National Guard for the past 75 days in Fort Dix in New Jersey, preparing to go to Iraq. Johnny and his classmates at Capt. G. Harold Hunt School spent part of their day yesterday writing letters to his dad and the other men and women of the National Guard 103rd Field Artillery who will be deployed to Kuwait next month for about a month and then to Iraq for about a year.

In Johnny’s classroom, his kindergarten teacher, Christine Cianciolo, played songs like “God Bless America” while he and his classmates wrote letters that say, “Thank you for fighting to protect us.” They got help writing from their teacher. Cianciolo told the students to draw on the letters something that made them feel good. The children covered the letters with drawings, and letters and words they are learning to write. Brian Martinez, 6, drew a picture of an angel with a halo and put on stickers that said things like, “You are my Hero” and “Love You.”

Josue Marin, 6, said, “I want to be a soldier so I can keep everyone safe.”

Johnny is the oldest of John and Annette Pina’s three children. The others are 3 and eight months old. He says that when his dad is home they go out to the field and play baseball. “My dad taught me how to play pool,” he says.

Annette Pina, 24, says the family has a Web cam so that the children can see their father. When he is home, he is the manager of a supermarket. Since John’s departure, Annette’s mother has moved in with her to help with the children. “I definitely have big family support,” she says.

Across the way from Johnny’s class is Elaine Jobling’s kindergarten class. She has a giant writing pad on an easel and is spelling out each word the children are going to write in their letter, “Thank you for fighting to protect us.”

Johnny’s mom brought in a military family writing kit that is given out for children and others to send letters to military personnel, which includes the stationary, stickers and pens.

“We have to sign off when we write a letter. What do you sign?,” Jobling says. The children look at her puzzled. “How about ‘love’? We want someone to feel very good inside,” she says.

“How do you spell love,” she says.

A boy named Antonio shoots up his hand. “L-O-V.” He can’t remember the last letter. “We need a quiet letter,” she says, spelling out love and adding a coma to it.

She hands out colored pencils so the children can draw pictures after they have spelled out the words.

Cianciolo said that the letter-writing idea came after Annette Pina came to a parent-teacher conference and told her about her husband’s deployment. “She wanted to let me know in case I saw any changes in Johnny,” she said. A letter-writing day would lift the spirits of the boy and his father and comrades, she said.

Johnny will get a chance to give his letter to his dad in person in a couple of weeks when his dad comes home for four days before going to Kuwait.

tpina@projo.com