Preschool Post Office

One of my favorite things to do with the kids (Corinne-4, Caleb-2) is to pretend play about things we already do. I use simple supplies usually that we have at home and set it up the night before so they can start playing in the morning right after breakfast.  It's fun to hear them get excited about something new that they see when they walk down the stairs!

For this activity, I knew we were going to need to run by the post-office during the afternoon.  So that morning I had post office supplies on hand; envelopes from the Dollar Store, old return address labels, stickers and more stickers, pens, paper and markers.  I also covered a cereal box with paper, cut a slot and labeled it.

They got right to work with "letters" to friends and family. To be honest, my 2 year old was only interested for about 10 minutes and hasn't done much letter writing since.  But what fun my 4 year old has had making notes, coloring pages for people and folding them into teeny tiny pieces to stick into the envelopes.  Then, it's about another 20 minutes to decorate the envelope.  The actual trip to the post office was not nearly as much fun as our post office at home!

We've kept our mail box up for a week now and continue to make letters.  It's been a good pretend play activity, a way to think about others, writing practice, learning about addressing an envelope and a practice in creativity!