Mail Carrier Activities for Toddlers

Explore Inside a Mailbag

• Turn a blue mesh tote bag into a makeshift mailbag. If you want, write the word mail on a sheet of paper and tape it to the side of the bag. Place several mail items inside the bag. Some ideas are letters from Grandma, colorful advertisements, magazines and small packages in padded envelopes or wrapped in brown paper. As your toddler pulls out each item, let her tell you what she knows about them. Show her the address on the letters, and help her learn as much of her address as she can remember. Point out the return addresses, the stamps and postmarks. Let her open each item and enjoy looking at all that came from the mail carrier's bag. Put the bag up when you aren't going to be with her so she isn't tempted to put the bag over her head.

Mail Carrier Dress-Up

• Put a blue shirt on your toddler. Use a loop of tape to stick a name tag with his name and the letters USPS onto the shirt. Turn a paper or foam soup-size bowl upside-down, and have him color the outside blue, or glue pieces of blue paper on the bowl. Let him help make a mailbag from a paper grocery bag. He can color the front side of the bag blue, Then, make a strap for the bag from duct tape. Tear off two pieces of tape long enough to go from his back waist and over his shoulder to the front of his waist. Stick the tape together. Attach the strap at the front and back of the bag using duct tape. Your junior mail carrier will love greeting the real one or going to the post office while dressed in his "uniform."

Fun with Stamps

• Draw your toddler's attention to different stamps that come in your mail. Show him the stamps you have purchased for your own mail. Encourage him to create his own stamp design with crayons or with magazine cutouts to glue onto a piece of copy-sized paper. Use an inexpensive journal for him to start a stamp scrapbook. Let some family and friends know about the scrapbook so they can save interesting stamps for his scrapbook.

Outgoing Mail

• Turn a cardboard shoe storage box into a mail-sorter shelf. Tape a small photo of each family member, grandparents and special friends onto the bottom surface in each divided section. Then, turn her loose with some paper, envelopes and crayons. Toddlers love to make pictures for everyone around them. She can practice folding pictures and manipulating them to fit into envelopes. If she wants help, you can write the recipient's name on the envelope. Have her put the "mail" into the correct divisions of the mail sorter. Help her deliver mail to those outside your home.