We all got to go in the back room where they opened up the giant rolling door and showed us where the big mail truck backs in and turned on the conveyor belt to show us how they move the mail along. Joshua's favorite part was when he got his hand stamped. :) The man showed them all the different stamps they use on the mail for different reasons and let the kids pick one to have stamped on their hands.
Some of the kids had a chance to sort the mail and they told us what they do when the mail comes here to a wrong address. They gave the kids a ride on one of the carts they use to move the big packages around...and showed them how every package that comes through gets x-rayed. Joy said that was her favorite part. :)
Some of the kids got to shred some old mail and others got to go through the steps of mailing and package...
Of course, this is the military mailroom...I'm sure in the regular post office things look a little different, but the kids sure enjoyed seeing it all!
They even made each of the kids a little goodie bag with stickers that looked like postage stamps, a pencil, balloons, candy and different mailing forms and address labels. The kids loved it! So can you guess what we played throughout the rest of the day?
The kiddos spent lots of time making mail! They wrote each other letters and enjoyed using the special items from their goodie bags. :)
Joy liked filling out the different mailing forms and labels that the post office gave her. They even wrote little notes on them that explained what each of the spaces was for like, "Who is it from?", "Who is it to?", "What's in the box?"....
We designed some of our own postage stamps...(Mommy helped Faith a little, but only where she told me too!)
We talked a little bit about how much it costs to mail a letter and a package and about how most of the time it is determined by weight. Then we got out our little math scale and weighed some of our 'mail' that we had made.
Living overseas, we always use the flat rate boxes and the kids are familiar with these. So I explained to them how they are different than mailing a regular box and how it's really nice that it costs the same no matter how much it weighs!
Joy helped me make a little blue mailbox for our play mail and we learned an easy little song that the kids sang while they 'mailed' their letters. It was called 'The Mail Carrier's Song', to the tune of 'Row Your Boat'...
"Write, write, write your cards,
And lots of letters too.
I will bring them to your friends,
And they will write back soon!"
Later on after using all of our stamp stickers and mailing our letters, Joshua volunteered to be the mailman and deliver them to everyone. :) He emptied out the mailbox and loaded up his backpack which was his 'mail bag' for the day.
He LOVED delivering the mail to each of the girls and sorting through to see what was for himself!
He's the cutest mailman I've ever seen.... :)
They were excited to find letters in there that they didn't write to each other! :) Mommy snuck some in the mailbox for each one of them and included a sweet treat in the envelope. I think we'll definitely be playing mail again soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment