Community Helpers: Mail Carriers & The Post Office

Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood? Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood, the people that you meet each day?

Do you remember this classic song from Sesame Street? It's a great way to introduce the theme of Community Helpers and yesterday we learned about our first community helper: the mail carrier!





I set up our lesson to be experienced through dramatic play by creating our own makeshift Post Office. Playing about mail carriers and post offices incorporates a variety of great early childhood skills including, but not limited to, fine motor development, pre-writing/early literacy, social skills (communicating with loved ones through mail and writing letters, thinking of others/generosity in sending a card or a gift)...

I allowed plenty of free time to explore the array of materials for designing and gluing postage stamps, writing letters and cards, stuffing envelopes, using stamps and stickers, tinkering with a calculator and (my son's very favorite), putting finished mail in our homemade mailbox.

Our "formal instruction" included reading the wonderful children's book Stanley the Mailman by William Bee. The author has written a series of great community helper themed children's literature featuring the adorable and beloved Stanley! I also love the book, The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. We happened to also have a toy mail carrier to join us for story time. Next, I invited my son to help decorate paper plate mailboxes for each member of our family where we can write/draw/dictate and deliver messages for each family member. What a fun way to pass each other little love notes throughout the day!
My son is looking forward to taking a walking field trip to our very local post office (it's across the street!) and helping to send a real piece of mail on its journey to a family member who does not live close by. Sending actual mail to loved ones is a great extension activity. Here are a few more extension ideas:

Our homemade mailbox--thanks
to my husband for rescuing an
empty box from the office garbage
and helping with the box cutter!

• Write a thank-you letter to your mail carrier and slip it in the mailbox--or even better, hand deliver it next time he or she is delivering mail in your neighborhood.
• Inquire about a behind-the scenes tour at your local post office. 
• Get a pen pal! Email and other technological advances in communication make it so easy to talk to friends and family around the world, but there is nothing quite like getting a handwritten letter or a card in the mail. 
• Write a letter to community helpers in your neighborhood! There are so many people who help our communities function each day (and night) and many times their work is thankless. Receiving a thank you note from a young admirer could bring so much joy! Better yet, does your little one want to know more about a particular career? Write a letter to ask for more information and provide an addressed and stamped envelope for a response. You might just get a special piece of mail in return!

Ready for writing, stamping, gluing, sticking, envelope-stuffing, calculating and more!

Busy at the Post Office!

Putting his mail into the mailbox...

Decorating family paper plate mailboxes. To make your own, cut one paper plate across the center (or slightly above) and staple the resulting half-circle to the top of a whole paper plate to create a pocket. Decorate however you please--we chose stickers for ours...

...and hung them up at child level so they are accessible to each member of the family.

Tatty already has a piece of mail waiting for him when he gets home from work!

 When a field trip isn't possible and we want to learn more about helpers in our community, YouTube is a great resource! We found a fabulous video about mail carriers and the post office:

For our next community helper, we will be learning about firefighters and fire safety! Until then...

My jolly postman!

Happy Playing!