Teacher Idea Factory

Teacher Idea Factory

END OF YEAR POSTCARDS + HOME SCHOOL SCIENCE

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I was trying to think ahead a little bit (now that’s a scary thought), and I remembered how much fun my kids had with a mail/letter writing thing we did earlier this year.  With this in mind, I thought to myself, why not run with this on vacation-themed level . . . postcard-style??!!

Not only will this go with all the travel activities from my Summer Vacation Packet that I plan on running those last two weeks of school, but I know that my kids will absolutely eat it up.  

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Here’s my plan.  The kids will design and write postcards back and forth for about a week.  I am going to kick off this activity as a center rotation.  The details are outlined below.

  1. Copy multiple templates and cut apart.
  2. Have your kids draw a numbered popsicle stick to determined which classmate they are writing to – it’s non-negotiable!  If you don’t run numbers or have “sticks,”  place your students names in a bin and have the draw this way.
  3. Students will then address their postcard (I plan on putting the school’s address on the board for them to copy) and write their letter.  I am going to make it more a compliment thing (i.e. what I’ll miss about you), but do what floats your boat!
  4. As students finish up the writing, have them flip it over and design the front of their card.  I will be breaking out my doodle and directed draw books as well as my colored pencils and sharp crayons.  
  5. When finished students will place their postcards in our mailbox and put the “flag” up (I have a cool real one in my classroom that I will break back out . . . it just adds that extra sizzle).  If you don’t have a mailbox, just designate a fancy box or bin as your holder!
  6. At the end of the day the VIP will serve as mailman and pass out the postcards.  Anyone who wants to share can do so 🙂
I may keep this activity as a center or I may move it to more of an “I’m Done” activity.  It will depend on my kiddo’s end of year attention span (if you know what I mean).  
**NOTE – if you run this as an “I’m Done” activity, make sure you have a system to ensure everyone will get an equal amount of cards by the time the week ends (i.e. they may not get one every day, but if they didn’t get one today . . . they will get one tomorrow).  
If you like the flavor of this activity and are runnin’ with a summer theme during your last few weeks.  You may want to check out my Summer Vacation End Of the Year Packet on TPT.

Also, I just have to ask . . . did you all see the awesome eclipse yesterday?  It was like home school science in my front yard yesterday evening.  My hubs was so excited – he loves this kind of stuff.  The circles that it created on our house were so dreamy.  I am glad I was able to catch it 🙂  

On a related note, I wanted to remind you all about an awesome giveaway happening over at Mrs. Stanford’s Class.  It’s a great one and you just don’t want to miss out.  Click on the button below to magically connect to Jessica’s contest 😉
Well, I need to scoot.  I gotta finish up my Open House movie.  I have been picking songs, croppin’ photos, and adding the last minute touches all day.  Oh yeah . . . and I’ve been shedding lots of happy tears along the way.  I just love my babies and when you start gettin’ my favorite songs involved it’s sob city for this emo gal ;).  See you tomorrow friends.

Comments

  3. Erin Morrison says

    Hi Kelley!

    I love the idea of postcard writing! I will be starting this tomorrow. Thanks for sharing 🙂 I am your newest follower! So glad we found one another's blogs!

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