Pre-K Post Office Activities

Songs

• From Step by Step Childcare, these two songs can be sung to familiar tunes. These are good circle time songs for the day of a post office field trip or on days when post office activities are part of the day's theme.

  "The Mail Carrier's Song" (tune: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

  Write, write, write your cards

  and lots of letters, too.

  I will take them to your friends

  and they will write back soon.

  "I'm a Letter Carrier" (tune: "I'm a Little Teapot")

  I'm a letter carrier, on my way. (walk in place)

  Here is my suit, it's blue and gray. (point to clothes and head)

  When I come to your house, every day, (point with index finger)

  I leave the mail, but I can't stay. (point to self)

Crafts

• Postcards and letters can be made easily with paper and crayons. For a "real"-looking postcard, give each child a piece of card stock cut a little larger than a real postcard to give them room to be creative. Offer the kids magazines to cut out, stickers or foam pieces to glue onto their postcards. Show each child how to turn them over and address them to friends. You can either write down for the kids the names and what they want to say, or you can allow them to "write" their own postcards and read them out loud. Often preschoolers like to scribble their own messages and interpret them for you later on.

  Mailbags can be made for each child by using two pieces of construction paper. Staple the two pieces of paper together, leaving the top open. Let the children color their mailbag. With a stapler, attach to the paper mailbag a piece of string or yarn long enough to be a shoulder strap for the child. Let the children deliver their letters and postcards to each other.

Food Fun

• Decorate graham crackers like postcards using peanut butter or cream cheese and raisins or other small edibles.

  Give each child a cookie cut out into a square shape and have them design their own stamp using colored frosting, sprinkles, chocolate chips or other treats.

  Rice Krispie treats, gingerbread and other bakery items can also be fashioned into letter treats.

Games

• Make mailboxes out of shoe boxes or other small containers. Give each child different shapes cut out of construction paper to put in their mailbags. Put a picture of each shape on the mailboxes. Have the children deliver their shapes to the correct boxes. This can also be done with colors, numbers or letters.