Stamps Galore

This month we've been enjoying a lovely unit study all about postage stamps, thanks to the awesome free resources provided by the USPS. The USPS is currently doing a trial for their new curriculum initiatives using stamps in the classroom.

When my home school friends suggested this program, I was expecting to get a little envelope with a couple of lesson plans and a few stamps. I was quite unprepared for what actually arrived. We received a rather large box, heavy with a hundred lesson plans/posters/books, and loaded with hundreds and hundreds of stamps to use in the guided activities.

What a delight it's been to explore every subject with the aid of international stamps! The lessons are very engaging for everyone. We placed several large cookie sheets on the table and poured an ocean of stamps into each one, so they could be sorted easily without and stamps falling to the floor. It was so fun to carefully dig through each pile of stamps, oohing and aahing over the lovely artwork.

One of the activities was to find 10 stamps of the same color, then look up the location of each country where the stamp was originally printed. The kids had SO much fun sorting through all the colorful choices and admiring the stamp artwork. They also enjoyed the challenge of locating some of the smaller countries on our globe.

Other lessons included grouping stamps by science commonalities (find 10 mammals, or 10 insects, or 10 birds, etc), or finding 10 stamps that each display a different form of art (painting, pottery, the portrait of an author or poet, ballet, movie references, etc.). It was such fun hunting for each topic and discussing what each person found. 

One  of the English lessons was a creative writing project. Students had to randomly select 5 stamps, then make up a story that incorporated all 5 of the images from their stamps. This was delightfully fun for everyone. 

Many years ago, I gave Sarah my childhood stamp collection and forgot about it. She was so excited to bring out my old wooden box full of stamps to compare the old and the new. 

 After each lesson was completed, the children were allowed to each choose 10 stamps to add in their personal collection. They had SO much fun selecting their favorite stamps, and the most popular ones were always printed in the Middle East. These lessons were a lovely way to spend a Sunday evening learning together.

Now the children ask me when we can do more lessons with stamps, and they look forward to the next time I pull out our big stamp box.