writing? Marianne Sargent offers pointers.
The countdown to Christmas provides lots of opportunities for children to write and send special messages to friends and families, as well as finding out about the postal service (see left).
A nursery post office
Set up a role-play post office and fill it with Christmas post.
- Use a table for a post office counter. Provide a telephone, weighing scales, ruler, notepad and pen as well as a till (or make a cash drawer using a cutlery drawer tray) filled with plenty of coins.
- Provide airmail stickers, self-inking stamps and blank sticky labels.
- Print off sheets of postage stamps. If possible, print them onto sticky labels and cut them up so children can peel and stick them.
- Set out trays for sorting mail. Label these alphabetically - for example, 'A-D'.
- Provide large hessian stacks, shoulder bags and trolleys.
- Set up a table with a variety of pens, pencils, envelopes and cheap blank Christmas cards, as well as written cards and envelopes from previous years.
- Wrap cardboard boxes in Christmas and brown parcel paper, and stick address labels on them.
Join the children's play and model what happens when you post a letter or parcel at a post office.
Talk about destinations, postcodes, weighing and measuring packages and postage costs. Ask the child- ren about their different roles sorting mail, working on the counter or delivering it.
Letters to Santa
Work with individual children to write a letter and post it to Santa.
- Can the child tell you their address? If so, write this at the top of the letter.
- Look up the date on a calendar and write this as well.
- Help the child write the main body of the letter and sign it.
- Provide an address for Santa (one that you can pick the post up from) and help to write this on an envelope.
- Provide a stamp and show the child where to put it on the envelope.
- Take children in groups to post their letters in a real postbox.
- Write replies and post them back to the children.
Letters from Santa
Services that offer to send a reply from Santa include:
- NSPCC Creates personalised letters from Santa in exchange for a donation, using the tool on the website http://christmas.nspcc.org.uk/santa. Requests can be placed until 15 December.
- RNIB To receive a letter for blind or visually impaired children, write to Santa Claus, RNIB, PO Box 173, Peterborough, PE2 6WS by 1 December. Include the child's name, address, contact number and preferred language (English or Welsh) and state whether you would like the reply in uncontracted Braille, contracted Braille, large print (specify font size) or audio CD. Alternatively, email santa@rnib.org.uk by 19 December and receive an emailed response. For more information, go to www.rnib.org.uk.
- Royal Mail To receive a standardised reply from Santa, write a letter stating the child's name, gender and reply address to Santa's Grotto, Reindeerland, XM4 5HQ by 6 December. Note that this is a free service and demand is high so there is a chance that you may not receive a response. Go to www.royalmail.com/letters-to-santa for more information.
Message in a cracker
Make Christmas crackers that contain messages inside instead of jokes.
- Work with individual children. Decide who the message is for and write the recipient's name on a sticker.
- Write the message on a small piece of paper.
- Fold the message up and put it inside a toilet roll.
- Wrap the toilet roll in a piece of coloured A4 paper and secure it with Sellotape.
- Tie a piece of parcel ribbon around each end to create a cracker shape.
- Stick the recipient's name on the cracker.
- Provide Christmas craft materials for the child to decorate their cracker.
Invite the children to take their crackers home and pull them with the intended recipient of the message.
Message on a bauble
Encourage children to write by inviting them to spread Christmas cheer with bauble messages.
- Cut a large Christmas tree shape out of some green card and mount it on a wall at child height.
- Cut some bauble shapes out of coloured paper. Ensure they are big enough for children to write on.
- Set up a table with the bauble paper, metallic glitter pens and glue sticks next to the tree.
- Invite the children to write Christmas messages to each other and stick them to the tree.
Resources
- Printable post office role-play pack and pretend postage stamps (www.twinkl.co.uk).
- Wooden postbox and cashpoint/post office front role-play panel (www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk)
- Cracker making kit (www.earlyyearsresources.co.uk).
- Small table-top post office, wooden postbox and postal worker uniform (www.tts-group.co.uk).
Learning opportunities
PSED: Forms positive relationships with other children.
CL: Uses language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences in play.
PD: Can handle tools and equipment effectively, including pencils.
L: Attempts to write short sentences in meaningful contexts.
M: Begins to use everyday language related to money.
UW: Talks about why things happen and how things work.
EAD: Represents own ideas and thoughts through role play.
BOOK CORNER
The Jolly Christmas Postman
By Janet and Allan Ahlberg
The Jolly Postman delivers Christmas greetings to fairytale characters.
Dear Father Christmas
By Alan Durant and Vanessa Cabban
This picture book features lift-the-flap letters exchanged between a little girl and Santa.
Santa's Special Letter
By Gail Yerrill
Santa has lost a letter in this story full of extras including lift-the-flaps, letters to open and a map.
Dear Santa By Rod Campbell
A festive version following the same design as Campbell's classic Dear Zoo.
Katie Morag Delivers the Mail
By Mairi Hedderwick
Katie helps to sort out a muddle with the mail.
Postman Bear
By Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
A bear writes and posts letters to his friends.
A Message for Santa
By Hiawyn Oram and Tony Ross
Emily lays down the ground rules for Santa as she's worried about him coming down the chimney.
A Letter to Amy
By Ezra Jack Keats
Peter writes a special letter of invitation to a party. A picture book classic.
CASE STUDY - IT'S THE POSTMAN
Postal services are gearing up for their busiest time of year. But
what happens to all those cards we pile into postboxes every Christmas?
The children at Kiddi Caru Day Nursery in Harlow recently received some
insider information about how the postal service works when they were
visited by a real postal worker.
'We use events like World Post Day to open up the children's eyes,' says nursery manager Jennie Gregory. 'The children found the visit very interesting, as they had never really considered where post comes from before. They have seen their local postman walking around, but didn't know how he came to have all the letters and parcels in his bag, so it was a real revelation for them.'
The visiting postman, a parent of a child at the nursery, allowed the children to try on his high-visibility vest and carry his postbag to see how heavy it was.
'
He explained the process of writing a letter and taking it to the post box, the fact that it goes through a sorting office and then gets delivered,' says Mrs Gregory. 'After that, the children did their own letters and pictures, put them in an envelope and stuck a stamp on. Then some of the children went to the letter box to post them and a few days later they saw the end result with the post arriving at their houses. There was a lot of excitement.'
Since the visit, the children have shown a great deal of interest in writing and sending letters. Nursery staff have supported this by enhancing the mark-making area with plenty of old mail and stamps.
Mrs Gregory highlights the benefit of forging strong links with parents and using their expertise to enhance learning. In the case of the postman, she says, 'The children did manage to ask him all sorts of questions during the visit but the main questions have come since they've experienced using the service. Obviously, because he's a parent the children can ask him questions as and when he comes in. It's been good for him as well; he's really enjoyed it.'
Marianne Sargent is a writer specialising in early years education and a former foundation stage teacher and primary and early years lecturer.