50 State Post Card Exchange-Kindergarten Style

I am so excited to tell everyone about the awesome postcard exchange that my class got to participate in this year. It was called "The Great Postcard Exchange" and it was so much fun! It all started when a new teacher blogger friend of mine, Sara, decided to organize this big event. She was able to gather up at least one teacher from each of the 50 states and even a few other places. Most of the teachers were Kinder teachers, but several were not. That made no difference at all, as they were all equally exciting and informative. Finally, she made a spreadsheet with all of our names and contact information and we all sent out postcards to each other.

We got the addresses in November and then the fun began. There were really no guidelines to follow, so the postcards started arriving in all shapes and sizes. I decided to ask for "donations" for the postcards and the postage stamps from my class, as you can see this would be a very expensive out of pocket expense. I couldn't' believe it, my school is 80% free and reduced and I was able to get 100% of this project donated. I had two different parents donate postcards. They found amazing ones at the Made In Oregon store at the mall. Then, during conferences I had a sign up sheet that read "We are doing a postcard exchange with other Kindergarten classes across the US. We are looking for people to provide postage and mail these fun cards. If you can donate, please sign your name and write how many postcards you would like to mail". I had some parents mail TWO and I had other parents sign up for 10. It was amazing! I really do think these parents want to keep learning fun in their child's classroom. It's a nice affordable way to contribute without a big commitment or expense. So, I prepared the postcards and got them to the parents to mail. Wallah! The postcards started coming in very slowly. Then, after the holidays there was practically one each day. We read them during our class meeting time. The kids were so excited to touch and read (listen to me read) the postcards.

At the end of the year I am going to let each child choose one to take home in their memory book. This was such a simple thing to do that created so much excitement in Room 15. I really hope Sara will consider organizing this next it again next year. Would you like to join The Great Post Card Exchange, no experience necessary? If so, leave a comment with your email and we will get you in the loop for the 2015-16 school year.