Post Office Writing Center
I have been SO excited to write this post! This Post Office Writing Center has an awesome story behind it and can’t wait to share it with all of you.
First, a little background.
When I was in the second grade, we had a mail box. This mail box was AMAZING. We would write notes and letters to our friends and teachers and place them in the mailbox. Our teachers would then “deliver the mail” by opening the mailbox and handing out the letters and notes. I absolutely loved this mailbox, and it really got me excited about writing. I STILL have a letter that my best friend Keri wrote me from this mailbox.
When I graduated, my second grade teacher gave me the most precious gift for my future classroom; the classroom mailbox from my second grade year! I am also a DEEPLY nostalgic person, so this was such a beautiful gift.
Thus inspired a “Post Office Writing Center” for my Transitional Kindergarten classroom. My husband made the stand for the mailbox. I got free lumber from Home Depot, they have scraps of wood that you can take. Also, it doesn’t hurt to mention you are a teacher and you are making this for your classroom!
You can also buy a similar mailbox here
You can also buy a similar mailbox here
Classroom Mailbox
I put up my A-Z word wall headers along with my word wall vocabulary cards to encourage students to use them in their writing.
Word Wall
I made these individual envelopes for each student.
Last, I created monthly postcards, letters, and greeting cards that are able to fit in perfectly inside the little envelopes!
As a class, we talked about what postcards and greeting cards are and how they could use these to write to their friends. We also discussed using words off of the word wall such as pumpkin or apple, and then labeling the pumpkin or apple so our friends can know what we drew for them.
One thing I like to make sure of is that each student has had a letter written to them. I want to avoid one student getting all of the mail, so the rule is that students need to write to students whose envelopes are left in the purple tray. If their envelope is already in the mailbox, we have to wait until we deliver the mail out before we can write to them again.
My kids absolutely love this writing center! Every day they want to write a letter or card to their friend, it’s definitely our most popular learning area!
Click below to get the package of greeting cards, postcards, and letter templates, as well as editable envelopes so you can customize it for your students!
Post Office Writing Center
The mailbox center is an awesome idea! When Devin was in kindergarten at Poinsettia Elementary in Ventura his teacher, Mrs. Brown had a little writing center similiar to your mailbox center and it really helped him learn to enjoy writing. Thanks for sharing!!