I’m trying to encourage my girls to practice their writing. They both enjoy writing stories, but are frustrated by the fact that their writing and spelling doesn’t match up with their imaginations. We needed a writing activity that used more every day words that they know, and less tricky words like ‘unicorn’ and ‘abracadabra’. So we dug out the writing sets they were got for their birthday last year (by the way – old fashioned letter writing set with stickers and pretty paper and envelopes etc – fabulous gift idea for 6/7 year olds!) and started writing letters to each other.
With all the letters piling up it was decided that we needed somewhere to post them. A big post box? Or what about individual personalised letter boxes? Yes!
I had to empty the biscuits out of two boxes so that the big kids all had roughly the same sized box to work on. Then we found some craft paper and glue sticks and set to work covering our boxes and added a name tag. We needed to let the box dry a little before I cut letter sized slots in the front of each box and set them up on our side board for easy access. We left the tops of our boxes open so the recipient could get their letters out.
A week later the big kids are still writing letters to each other and have even discovered that the letter fairy likes to deliver random letters ever now and then. There is lots of writing and reading going on, and who knows…maybe one day soon, the girls will manage to write their Z’s the right way around, especially since they both have Z’s in their name!
Great idea and the mail boxes are so creatively decorated!
Wish I had a gorgeous letter box like these. I am sure it would make my postie smile.
Lovely idea! They look beautiful, too. I think my nearly-4-year-old might like this, she loves to ‘read’ and ‘write’ (though of course she’s not writing anything recognisable yet). Will definitely give this a try!
Such a great idea – and they look so pretty!! I used to have a mail box for my students to hand-in their work…everyone loves posting things!!! (meanwhile if I could just find where Meerkat has posted the covers to the hotplates then our stove top would work!!!)
xxxCate
Will be putting some of these in the new playroom!
What a great idea! My oldest child can still only write his and his sister’s name, we are not up to letters yet. But I’ll keep this in mind for later.
Owh what a great activity. Love that your kids are posting letters to each other.
I once made a personalised letter set as a gift. Really easy to do with a computer and a printer and costs next to nothing.
Oh, my little kids would have a blast just posting everything and anything into those beautiful boxes. Might be a good excuse for me to buy some new shoes (to use two shoe boxes instead of biscuit boxes).
They’re lovely – and a great idea to get them writing.
What a wonderful idea!!!
What fun :) I can’t even imagine the troubles and frustrations we’ll go through when Henry gets the age of writing and telling stories… oh man… the things I never think of!
These remind me of Valentine Boxes at school :) hehe
Thanks for linking up to It’s Playtime this week, I hope to see more of your ideas next Thursday too!
Jamie @ hands on : as we grow
What a sweet idea!