Friday, June 17, 2011

Weekly Wrap Up: Mail Carrier Unit

We have been learning about the mailman and the post office the last few weeks. We DO follow a curriculum (BJU) but very loosely. Pretty much, I just look to see what the unit it is and then do my own thing. The curriculum just keeps my ADHD in check :).

Reading
For once I have a few good books to recommend.



First is 'The 7 Little Postmen' by Margaret Wise Brown. Very cute book!



The Jolly Pocket Postman by Janet & Allan Ahlberg. This was a good book. I have heard that the other Jolly Postman books are better, and I hope to get more of them in the future. But, the kids really liked opening the letters and using a magnifying glass for this one.


Math



I made a postage stamp addition game for Mustang, which I also used for number matching with Charger. I blogged about it here and it can be downloaded here.



Language



Charger worked on a postage stamp match game, a good pre-reading skill. I made this game up for him and then realized it was very 'boy' so I made a girl's game as well.

The boy's stamp match game can be downloaded here.

The girls stamp match game can be downloaded here.

General

I found a great package of information from the US Postal Museum. It can be downloaded here.



As part of the package, the kids made their own postage stamps.


We worked on learning our address. We have one of the hardest addresses to memorize. I'm not sure how long it will take Mustang to learn it. It took my husband and I a few weeks to get it right!



One thing I did was to print off two copies of this envelope printable from DLTK-Kids. I wrote our address on one and had Mustang copy it to her own.

I also taught her (or at least tried) a little song to learn her address. It is to the tune of 'It's Raining it's Pouring.'

My name's Mustang Smith
This is where I live
123 Our Country Road
Blogger, Internet.

(obviously I changed her name and address lol). I heard this song back when I was a nanny in High School from the little girl I watched, and I have no idea who I would credit.

And a few things from our shelves


For the first tray I put a stack of envelopes with the lowercase letters on the front, and our wooden uppercase magnets on the side. The idea was to find the uppercase letter, match it with the lowercase, and fill the envelope. No one wanted to do this work. Big FLOP lol.




The other was much better. I found 2 little metal mailboxes at yard sales and thrift stores. I found little envelopes that would fit inside, and put it all together in the basket.





All three children enjoyed opening and closing the mailboxes (which were a little difficult for Mini Cooper and Charger), filling them and 'sending mail' to each other. It went on throughout the entire school session. They would put mail in, work on something, and then take the mail out. Or, they would put the mail in and go tell the other that they had mail. It was quite cute.

If you are looking for more ideas for your Mail Carrier unit, I found great ideas at the following sites. I just didnt end up using them, because they didnt fit our needs, but there are a lot of great things to find!

Making Learning Fun
2 Teaching Mommies
First-School

We are linked up this week at



Tot School


Have a great Father's Day and God Bless!!

8 comments:

Sharla said...

What a great study! That actually would work well for us right now as we live in Canada and Canada Post is on strike so the kids have been asking questions about why we don't get the mail anymore. That might be a good introduction to a unit like this. You have great ideas!!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing I'm going to make for my grandson. I hope to be posting again my printables next week. Did you like the printables I made? Do you have any suggestions for new ones. I would love to hear your input. Thanks, Gwyn
Will you please check and see if you can still go to my blog? I put a new templete up I found for free. Thanks, Gwyn

Unknown said...

What a cute study! I'm sure the kids LOVED it! Do they have pen pals? Even my youngest son sends letters to his...but they're pictures and drawings! It's fun to get mail! Stopping by from Weekly Wrap-up!

Jessy

Lisa @ Our Country Road said...

@ Gwyn-if you read this, I cant see any posts on your blog, though I can see your blog. I also cant email you as its not set up in your profile. I hope you see this-if you do, let me know :).

Gwyn said...

I seee it and I added my e-mail to my blog and sent you an e-mail. Thanks, Gwyn

Annette said...

What a fun unit! ANd I liked the practical side of it with the kids learning their address!

jess_hak said...

What cute activities!! :) I really like your envelope/letter matching game even if your kiddos didn't :) I think it is quite creative.

Loretta said...

Boy does this bring back memories. This is exactly how I did unit studies when my boys were this small - a mish-mash of picture books, homemade activities, and things I found on the internet. I am slowly but surely converting some of my old notes (the boys are high schoolers now) into blog posts. From TOS Crew, returning your visit :-)