Skip To Main Content
Two girls sorting Valentine's Day cards.

 

Bay Farm 3rd graders combined a Valentine's Day celebration with hands-on learning this week when they ran their annual Valentine Post Office. Students filled the roles of Postmaster General, systems designers, stampers, regional and branch mail sorters, and letter carriers. Then they wrote and processed some 2000 Valentines through a simulated postal system that includes a beautiful mail box, regional and branch POs, streets, and a beautiful mail box.

"It's fun to sort all the mail and learn all the addresses," noted Regional Mail Sorter Donovan.

In addition to the joy of delivering Valentines, students got to practice writing (each wrote 30 messages) and addressing letters, exercise social-emotional skills (by listing positive traits of each recipient), and develop career skills (by submitting applications to each Post Office job). 

Using a classic professional development strategy, some students were  responsible for training the trainers. "I supervise the Systems Designers," third grader Harper told us proudly. "So my job is to teach the designers to teach the other designers what to do." 

Inspired by the Bay Farm tradition, students at Paden now participate in a similar project each year.