This year my class is sending mail all over the country. It’s not a back-and-forth pen pal program. It’s a hands-on unit all about mail: writing a letter about ourselves, addressing envelopes, buying stamps, dropping letters in the blue mailbox, and tracking every state we send to and hear from on a map.
What is Mail Across the Map?
It’s an exploratory unit on sending and receiving mail. Each student fills out a one-page letter all about them, their school, and their city, and we mail it to classrooms across the country. We aren’t waiting on replies, but when mail does come back, we celebrate it and color in that state on our map.
What students practice
- Writing about themselves with an “All About Me” letter page (there’s a circle-and-write version too)
- Addressing an envelope: the mailing address, the return address, and the stamp
- U.S. postage: what stamps cost and how to budget for them
- Where to drop off mail and how to use a blue collection box
- Mail jobs and the skills employers look for
- Geography: finding and coloring in each state on a map
Grab the free materials
The lesson slides and the student pages are a free download in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Join the class address list
The more classrooms that join, the more places our students can send mail. Teachers are adding their school mailing address to one shared list, and everyone who joins can see every class on it.
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