From Stormie: My "Animals" booklet has my favorite
ideas in it for creating a "pretend pet shop." You can get my
booklets through the Stormie's Stuff for Teachers section
of my website. I will create more ideas for posting here when/if I can.
Post
Office
From Stormie: My "Community Helpers"
booklet has suggestions for creating a "post office creative drama kit." You
can get my booklets through the Stormie's Stuff for Teachers
section of my website.
Here's a great idea from Terri
Cole from Elyria, Ohio: Hi Stormie, I converted a tiered book shelf
of our classroom into a "Post Office" where each child had his own mailbox:
To create the mailboxes, we did the following: With a
manila file folder in front of you (fold being at the bottom), start at the fold
and cut upwards, cutting the folder in half. This makes two mailboxes. Trim
the top front portion of the folders about 1/4" down, making it easy for
children to see their "mail." Use masking tape to secure the sides
of the folders. Print a child's name on the front of each folder. (I
also included a flag graphic from MS Word on the front of each mailbox -- taping
it on with packaging tape.) The children decorated their mailboxes.
During playtime, the children created "letters"
and mailed them to their friends. (We provided envelopes, stamps --
lick & stick ones from mail order music CD clubs, etc, donated recycled cards,
pencils, and so on.) We encouraged our parents to "send" notes
to their children as well. The kids absolutely beamed when they got "Mommy
and Daddy mail!" And while the children napped, we "mailed"
letters to them too (their take-home papers, coloring sheets, tracer pages, etc).
This "post office" was SO popular, we
didn't take it down even after we finished the theme, and the mailboxes got well-worn
and taped several times due to this popularity !!! Variation:
Children could bring shoeboxes from home for their mailboxes, but in our case,
the idea above was a good way for recycling old manilla file folders.
From
Kimerly Gaines:
We "group paint" a large appliance sized box to resemble a post office.
I cut windows into it, etc., and we basically turn it into a writing "lab"
with all kinds of writing materials. Then, the Play Kitchen becomes the
"Cafe" next to the post office with play foods, napkins, paper plates,
etc. Plush animals and doll babies are made available for lots of hugging.
:-) Creative Drama Tip: Have you ever thought of
turning your toy kitchen appliances around in different ways? For example,
turned sideways, they make great counters for "serving." Plush
animals, babies to hug and squeeze. -------------------------
Reminder
from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom
ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you
can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here
to check them out.
Post
Office 