Mailbox Maker Challenge

Activity Overview

Receiving a letter in the mail is a very exciting event for young children. Mail carriers are important members of our community because they bring mail to our homes, and help us to communicate with our loved ones. No matter the weather, mail carriers ensure that the mail gets delivered! This activity challenges the student to create their own mailbox – and we encourage you to use your imagination to make it as colorful, creative, wacky, or offbeat as you like. Since many students think and process well when their hands are engaged, this mailbox design challenge creates an opportunity for caregiver and student to exchange thoughts and ideas about our mail carriers and community helpers while keeping their bodies active. While we build our mailboxes, we will also build our awareness of compassion, gratitude, kindness, and community.

What You Need

• Cardboard boxes, shoeboxes, or other type of container with lid

• Paper rolls, cardboard flats and other recyclable materials that can be used for maker work

• Duct tape and other adhesives

• Construction paper, white paper, envelopes, area in the house to hang up different slots for mail.

• Mailbox Maker Challenge slideshow

Steps

1. Read Where Does Mail Go? with your student. In the book, Meg writes Dana a letter. She puts it in a mailbox, and mail carriers deliver it to Dana’s address. Engage the student with guiding questions.

2. Highlight the mailboxes in the book. Note the attributes – the size, the opening, the flag – frame the activity by telling the student that we’re going to make our own mailbox today.

3. Browse through our Mailbox Maker Challenge slideshow for inspiration. What does your student already know about mailboxes?

4. Get to work! Depending on the student’s developmental level, they can either iterate by making drawings (blueprints) first, or just get started.

5. Design constraints - make sure the mailbox:

   1. Is large enough for mail to fit inside.

   2. Can open and close.

   3. Has a way to signal that there is mail inside.

6. When finished, help the student make letters or cards that they would like delivered to different family members or friends, walk them through the conventions of mailing a letter, and send it on its way!

Guiding Questions

• Have you ever received a card or letter from a friend or family member? How did that make you feel?

• What are some ways that show generosity to others?

• How can we be kind to others? How can we make someone feel better?

• Who would you like to write a letter to? How can I help?

• What should we say in our letter, to make sure they know we love them and are thinking of them?

• What do we need to include on the letter to make sure it gets delivered?

• Have you ever been to the post office? What is it like there?

Extensions

• The next time you see your mail carrier delivering mail to your home, say, “Hello” and engage them in conversation. What part of the job do they enjoy? Where do they deliver mail? How hard is it to deliver everyone’s mail? What is something unexpected that’s happened to them while delivering the mail?

• Students can emulate their mail carrier by making a mail carrier bag out of a reusable shopping bag and fabric markers or permanent markers to decorate it.

• Have the student write a letter to themselves, address it and take it to the post office. How long does it take to receive the letter back in the mail?