I recently found these cute little Valentine mailboxes in the Target Dollar Spot, and knew I could use them for something. I think these could have many uses for many different activities. I found two different kinds of mailboxes: one looks like the kind people typically have in front of their house and the other has a little slot like the mailboxes at the post office. For Mailbox Math, I made these printable number and shape envelopes to use with them.
Here’s how to prepare the printable envelopes:
First, print the envelopes (I used card stock), and cut out each envelope as shown in the picture. Do not cut down the middle — this is the fold line.
Next, fold each envelope in half, as shown.
Then add glue to the inside and stick it down (or use double sided tape). This gives your envelope a front and back to make it look authentic.
Cut out the shape or number cards and attach them to the mailboxes with a loop of tape (see picture below). The shape cards are shown below, but the number set can be used the same way.
How to Play “Mailbox Math”
To play the shapes game, children sort the envelopes by shape into the correct mailboxes. There are four cards for each shape. To play the counting game, children count how many on each envelope and sort them into the correct mailboxes. Each number has four cards. I made numbers 1-10, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy 10 mailboxes. You could buy maybe 5 mailboxes (or however many you want) and choose which numbers to use this week; then switch the numbers out the next week.
The envelopes fit perfectly into the mailbox slot.
The activity above works well for center time. Here’s another way to use these mailboxes, which works well for small group. Place a few cards on the table with one mailbox. Ask a child in the group to find a certain shape. For example, you might tell a child to “Find and mail the purple heart.” or “Find and mail the green hexagon.” You could do the same activity with the number cards.
I also thought these mailboxes were cute, too. You could use either kind for this game. Here’s the shapes activity…
And here’s the counting activity…
Download and Print
Click to download the PDFs and print.
Need Mailbox Literacy Activities?
If you’re looking for Literacy activities to use with these mailboxes, you could print out the Letter Sound Picture Cards, which are just the right size to fit into the mail slots. You could label the mailboxes with letters and have children sort the beginning sounds pictures into the mailboxes.
I also found a Syllable Activity over at Pre-K Pages that uses these very same mailboxes.
Do you have an idea for using these mailboxes? Please share it in the comments section below!