In the age of Pinterest, we’re inundated with all kinds of fun activities to do with our kids, but sometimes we miss out on some cool things just because they don’t have an image on the page to pin and we forget about good old-fashioned internet searches. (Can an internet search really be old-fashioned? Am I that old now?!) I recently stumbled across an activity I’d never heard of that went along perfectly with what we were doing that day so I wanted to share it with you!
We’ve been reading Mailing May and I decided to go over how to address an envelope with my son. I decided to do a quick search for addressing an envelope to see if there was anything to make it more thrilling and came across this Address Practice Craft. I realized it would be simpler—and more realistic–to go upstairs and get some actual envelopes from the office, but I noticed a link to a recipe for Stamp Glue and looked a little further. I’m so glad I did!
You can make your own stamp glue with things you may already have in the pantry or that can be found easily at the grocery store. I actually had everything on hand, though thanks to a water main break, I had to bust out the bottled water. We followed the simple directions, brushed it on the back of the paper, let it dry, and we had our own stamps! Because this was a spur of the moment thing I just printed some pre-made stamps from DLTK (look for the link at the bottom of the address craft page), but it would be a great assignment to have the kids design their own stamps!
Here are a few links to get you thinking about how you could use this with your kids!
- The first postage stamp wasn’t used until 1840, but you could learn about America’s first Postmaster General with this Benjamin Franklin lapbook.
- Learn about how your mail is delivered with the Reading Rainbow episode of Hail to Mail!
- We love the You Wouldn’t Want to Be… books and they have one about Pony Express riders that looks very interesting.
- If you have an animal lover, try this Meerkat Mail unit study to draw them in!
I hope you enjoy this activity—we certainly did!
