Millie Waits for the Mail

Pretend Play Post Office and Rolling Giant Dice

Mail Carriers are the first to explore community helpers hands-on in our very new homeschool preschool - very exciting. We are setting up a pretend play post office and mail delivery services, learning about mail and how to send and receive a letter, and rolling giant dice for our favorite book of the month: "Millie Waits for the Mail" by Alexander Steffensmeier.

Poppins Book Nook

It's time for a Poppins Book Nook - a book club that goes live on the last Monday of each months.

The theme for this month is "When I Grow Up". This is a very exciting topic - it calls for all things pretend play. Visit the hosts of Poppins Book Nook to find out who the kids want to be and how they pretend play and discover the world around them along the way!

You can find our previous Poppins Book Nook books and activities here:
The Runaway Bunny
Little Blue Truck
The Little Speckled Hen
There Was an Old Pirate Who Swallowed a Fish

Millie Waits for the Mail

The kind mail carrier is delivering the mail to the farm. "Oh, that's boring," you'd say. Not on this farm, it isn't! Adventures, hiding and chasing, very charming farm characters, and more... are making this book fascinating and interesting for any age.

I think post office and mail delivery is an excellent first theme for the beginning of the school year! It encourages to read and write. A lot of symbols are used for communication which is great to learn and use to represent ideas in written communication! This pretend play is all about fun with sorting, matching, counting, drawing and writing.

Pretend play - post office

Camilla loved her new post office beyond any of my expectations. It took some time to set up, but so worth it!

1. I offered a set for desk organizing that I had.

2. Envelopes.

3. Stamps. I printed out stamps from here: USPS Store. Set them up in a small box with a glue stick.

4. Cardstock.

5. Peek-a-Boo Interactive Flash Cards from SchoolZone. This is a winner! Camilla had them for a while, but had not been that interested. It is different when you are writing on them to deliver the message to Daddy, or your favorite stuffed animal, isn't it? Since they have numbers on them, they can be used for delivering to an address, or sorting and matching activity.

The cards are laminated and can be reused for dry-erase. Affiliated link:

6. I had a set of USPS new boxes. We'll have to assemble them together and deliver the presents to friends.
7. The pocket chart: adds a lot of fun to pretend play!
8. A mail carrier uniform. For the hat, I printed out USPS logo and glued it onto the blue cap (white school glue worked just fine - I let it set overnight). I saw in another laminated logo onto my old diaper bag. The bag is Camilla's another very favorite (besides the cards). A blue and white outfit completed the look.
9. Newspapers and junk mail - we stuffed a bunch into the diaper bag. It turned out being interesting: I realized that Camilla never had these in her hands before and there are captivating back to school pictures in all the papers now, LOL.
10. Markers and stickers.

 

Roll a die - developing symbolic thinking

A simple game based on the book doesn't take any time to set up. I made a giant dice: an old box with pictures on all sides.

 

We are playing in a small group when players are moving around, talking and laughing. The box worked for us: the picture on top is clear and visible to all the players, and the noise of the falling box draws attention.

 

Roll a box - the picture on top is a call for action.

A pig and a chicken - players are to make animal sounds.

Mail carrier - deliver the mail.

Farmer - tell the cow to be nice to a mail carrier. Or milk a cow.

Cow - say "Moo" and scare the mail carrier.

 

A field trip to a mail box

Thursday, September 4 is a Newspaper Carrier Day... and a first day of our new and exciting Homeschool Preschool. Our first field trip will not be long, and we'll try to catch a mail carrier to observe and talk.

 

But until then, here is a set up for our mail boxes. I laminated small USPS logos and attached them to boxes with the tape. It is additional fun for kids to have movable parts. Camilla played with the pictures on boxes, and it made a world of a difference for her to accept that these are special mail boxes, LOL.

 

 When I Grow Up

I hope you enjoy following a group of these wonderful bloggers - hosts of Poppins Book  Nook!

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ 3 Dinosaurs ~ To the Moon and Back ~ Planet Smarty Pants ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Growing in God's Grace ~ Chestnut Grove Academy ~ Learning and Growing the Piwi Way ~ The Usual Mayhem~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Monsters Ed Homeschool Academy ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Teach Beside Me ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ Kathy's Cluttered Mind ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Our Crafts N Things ~ Hopkins Homeschool ~ ABC Creative Learning ~ Joy Focused Learning ~ P is for Preschooler ~ Laugh and Learn ~ A Mommy's Adventures ~ Inspiring 2 New Hampshire Children ~ World for Learning ~ Ever After in the Woods ~ Golden Grasses ~ Our Simple Kinda Life ~ A glimpse of our life ~ Journey to Excellence ~ Happy Little Homemaker ~ Little Homeschool Blessings ~ Simplicity Breeds Happiness ~ Raventhreads ~ Learning Fundamentals ~ Tots and Me ~ As We Walk Along The Road ~ Stir the Wonder ~ For This Season ~ Where Imagination Grows ~ Lextin Academy ~ The Canadian Homeschooler ~ School Time Snippets ~ Peakle Pie ~ Mom's Heart ~ A Moment in our World ~ Every Bed of Roses ~ Finchnwren ~ At Home Where Life Happens ~ Suncoast Momma ~ The Library Adventure ~ Embracing Destiny ~ Day by Day in our World ~ Our Homeschool Studio ~ A "Peace" of Mind ~ Thou Shall Not Whine ~ SAHM I am ~ eLeMeNo-P Kids ~ Simple Living Mama

When I Grow Up Bundle Giveaway!

Every month the Poppins Book Nook group will be offering readers

a chance to win a brand new storybook

that ties in with our theme for the month.

This month one lucky entrant will win
 

a bundle of fun for the theme of When I Grow Up.  This bundle will include a copy of the storybookWhen I Grow Up by Mercer Mayer, one copy of Community Helpers Puzzles by Trend, and one copy of Community Helpers & Careers Pocket Flash Cards by Trend.

Entrants must be 18 years or older and reside in a country that receives U.S. Postal mail. This giveaway is brought to you by the company Enchanted Homeschooling Mom who is owner and founder of the Poppins Book Nook. By entering this giveaway you are also acknowledging that you have read and agree to all of the Rafflecopter terms & conditions as well as Enchanted Homeschooling Mom's disclosures found here {http://enchantedhomeschoolingmom.org/disclosures/}.  
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway






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