Post Office Unit Study

We have been having a great time learning about the US Postal Service. I thought it would be fun to create a Post Office Unit Study to go along with our International Postcard Exchange learning adventure. We have joined up with over 300 preschools and homeschools to do a postcard exchange around the world and it has been a great learning adventure for us.

Be sure to check out all of our stories in this series with lots of leaning suggestions and links to resources:
Postcard Exchange
P Is For Postcard (and post office, and postman)
Postcard Geography Notebook and Bulletin Board
Post Office Unit Study

Below I have listed resources for you to enjoy a fun Post Office learning adventure with your kids. I have a few more stories in this series to post and link up yet. I hope to post a few additional worksheets and printables too. But there are lots of links to printables below and feel free to make your own if you need more. If you have some to share, be sure to leave a link to them in the comment section below.

Post Office Unit Study

If you would like to learn more about the United States Postal Service, then why not do a unit study and lapbook or notebook to further the learning? I have listed several resources below as a Post Office Unit Study to help you further the post office adventure.

Books & DVD’s

Visit your local library or an online source to pick up a few books and DVD’s that center on the theme of the post office, mail delivery, pony express, or writing letters.

Some suggestions include:

In addition to reading, I have to highly recommend a movie we also watched called “Letters To God”. Letters To God is a movie / DVD about a boy with cancer who writes letters to God about the needs of his local community and how it changes a mailman’s heart and he learns about God’s mercy and grace through the life and mail of this boy. It is truly an amazing and inspiring story. It is a true story! My kids love this movie!

BIBLE (Writing, Copywork, Reading, Faith):

Find “Letters” in the Bible.
Write a letter (prayer) to God.
Read a portion of God’s letter (God’s word, the bible) he gave to you.
Copy a passage of the bible that speaks to your heart.

Videos (Social Studies, History, Geography):

Video: A Day In The Life Of A Mail Carrier

Video: Mailman on Horse Back in Appalachia

Video: Owney The Postal Dog

Video: Liberty’s Kids Postmaster General Franklin (part 1)

Video: Liberty’s Kids Postmaster General Franklin (part 2)

Video: How Stamps Are Made

Video: How Envelopes Are Made

Video: The Story Of The Pony Express

Video: Postman Pat (cartoon series).

More Postman Pat videos on you tube. Do a search on you tube for Postman Pat, PostmanPat and you should find a large variety of shows to watch. Postman Pat has been teaching kids about the postal service, community, friendship, and problem solving for over 27 years.

Lesson Plans and Printables (Language Arts, and All Subject Areas):

Letter Carrier Lesson Plans from First School

Letter Writing Skills Lesson Plans

Post Office Theme Unit From Ed Helper

Mail Carrier Unit From Confessions Of A Homeschooler

Mailman Unit from Lawteedah

The Pony Express History

Westward Ho From Homeschool Share
(lesson plans, unit studies, and lapbook resources about The Pony Express and the Westward Expansion of our nation).

Oweny The Postal Dog

Wikipedia US Postal Service

Wikipedia Pony Express

Wikipedia Postcard

The Postal System

Currclick The Pony Express The Mail Must Go Through

Lapbooks and Notebooks (Writing, and All Subject Areas):

Princess Correspondence Lapbook from Lapbook Lessons

Prince Correspondence Lapbook from Lapbook Lessons

Mini Office Lapbook from Homeschool Creations

The Pony Express Lapbook Pages

Mailing May from Homeschool Share
(some of these pages are perfect for a post office lapbook even if you don’t use the suggested book).

Diagram about the flow of mail: How the mail is collected, sorted, and delivered. This would be great to print out and include in a lapbook or notebook about the postal system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:USPS_mail_flow_through_national_infrastructure.svg&page=1

Vocabulary and Spelling Words:

Post Office
Mail
Mail Carrier
Postman
Mail Truck
Envelope
Stamp
Postcard
Package
Box
Post Office Box
Airmail
E-mail
Letter
Weight
Scale
Mailbox
Drop box
Mail Bag
Address
Return Address
Sender
Pony Express

Word Puzzle Using The Above Spelling Words

Writing:

Younger students practice writing the letter P and p .

Younger students practice writing the letter M and m .

In addition to copy work, and spelling words, try some of these additional writing activities.

Write a short story using at least 10 of the vocabulary words, or write a paragraph using
at least three of the vocabulary words.

Write a postcard to someone.(We wrote 18 postcards to kids around the world).

Write a letter to someone. (We wrote a letter and made thank you cards for Postmaster
John, and a letter to Grandma).

Create your own stationary to write a letter on.

Literacy Ideas For Mail Carrier from Making Learning Fun

Geography:

Draw a map or use a map and draw the path of a letter from your house to your local post office to a mail distribution center and then on to Grandma. Try mapping a letter to the President, to the Queen, to a consulate or US Embassy in a foreign country. What other special addresses can you find to map?

Map the trail and expansion of the Pony Express.

Find your location and the location of a person you are sending a letter to on a globe.

Find your location and the location of a person your are sending a letter to on google maps. How many miles, approximately, will your letter travel?

Create a geography notebook of places you send or receive mail from. Include details about the various locations in your notebook. Ideas might be a map, coloring pages of the shape of the country or state. The flag, bird, flower, tree or other symbols related to

Create a bulletin board or poster board with a map for learning about places you send or receive mail from.

50 States Coloring Pages Just choose the states you need for your learning adventures.

Countries Coloring Pages

Print out a map. Or use tape to make a road on a flat surface. Use a small truck or car to represent the mail carriers vehicle. Have the child pretend to be in the car and travel the map or road to deliver the mail at various destinations. You can make this as involved as you wish. You could create buildings with small boxes to make a town for the mail carrier to deliver mail and packages to. You can place matching numbers or letters on the buildings for mail to be delivered. You can practice your own address with this. You can also practice directions of left, right, north, south, east, west. You could also create a map with coordinates and your mail carrier would need to read the map to find the destination. This could be a really fun geography adventure!

Math Activities:

Count change to buy a postage stamp for a postcard.

Count change to buy a postage stamp for a envelope.

Count change to buy a postcard and pay for a postage stamp to mail the postcard to Australia.

Find out how much per ounce it costs to mail a package local vs. overseas.

Graph how much it costs to send a 15lb package to Alaska, Hawaii, Germany, Spain, England,

France, Australia, South Africa, India, your neighbor, etc.

Find out how much money a postal worker makes in a month and add or multiply to find out their salary for a year.

Find out how many miles your letter would travel from your house to your grandparent’s house, from your house to your aunt’s house, and from your house to the White House.

John bought a page of stamps that were 4 stamps across and 6 stamps down. Calculate how many stamps are on the page.

Find the total area of a stamp.

Find the total area of an envelope.

Calculate postage for a large envelope being sent from New York to California.

Math Ideas For Mail Carrier from Making Learning Fun

Online Games and Quizzes:

Online Mail Delivery Game at Apples For The Teacher

Braving The Elements

Help The Tiger Mail The Valentine

Quiz About the Postal System

Postmaster Challenge (Trivia Game)

Decode The Barcode (Mathematical Reasoning Game)

Rail, Sail, and Overland Mail

Coloring Pages:

Mailman carrying the mail.

Mailman delivering the mail.

Postman Pat online coloring pages.

Mailman

The Pony Express Coloring Page

The Pony Express Nebraska History Coloring Page

Video: How To Draw Postman Pat

Mail Carrier Puppet With A Toilet Paper Tube

Mail Bag Craft With A Paper Sack

Mail Drop Box and Mail Bag

Mail Drop Box

Other Activities and Arts and Crafts:

Write A Letter

Printable Postcard

Create A Postcard

Address Practice Craft

Design A Stamp

Learn About Stamp Collecting

Create A History Timeline about the post office.

Dora and Diego Postcard

Toys & Games:

We played a fun role play game of “Postman Delivers Postcards”.

We cut out rectangles from cereal boxes. We also made some rectangles with construction paper. We wrote our address on one side and drew a stamp. The picture from the cereal box was already on the other side, but we added our own pictures to the construction paper rectangles. We placed the postcards into a shoulder bag.

One person was the postman. The postman wore the shoulder bag and delivered the mail. The other kids waited for their mail. They also sent mail to each other.

We have a toy mailbox and the mail was delivered to the mail box. We also made additional mailboxes out of pop tart boxes turned on their side.

For additional fun, you can ad numbers to the boxes for the address and have the kids match the mail to the box numbers if you want to ad more challenge to the play.

There are several board games about the postal service and stamps available. Check out these post office versions of monopoly.

Take A Field Trip:

Nothing beats a “hands on” trip to the post office. It doesn’t have to be a formal field trip. Just get the kids and go buy some stamps, or mail an envelope to your classroom, or to grandma, etc. It can be that simple! Be sure to check out our field trips to the post office in the other stories in this series.