Please Mr. Postman
At Rye Presbyterian Nursery School, making connections in the community is all-important. This year, Mrs. Scher’s and Ms. Jadidian’s 4-year-old afternoon class made many the old-fashioned way, snail mail.
It all started at the Mail/Message center in the classroom, where children were drawing and signing their names and the names of the message recipients. The children enjoyed the intra-mail service until a classmate asked how he could send a message to England.
That created new buzz in the classroom, and, before long, all of the children wanted to send letters to family and friends near and far. But how could they do that? they wondered. They needed to know more about mailboxes, buying stamps, addressing envelopes, and the process by which mail goes from the mailbox near the school across the country, around the world.
So, a field trip to the Rye Post Office was planned. Postmasters Rob and Trina gave them an insider tour of the back room. The children watched closely as packages were scanned and placed in bins according to addresses for speedy delivery.
They returned to school even more excited about sending and receiving mail. And then, one day something even more wonderful happened, a large, bulky manila envelope arrived. The envelope contained individual envelopes, one for each student. The letters were from Mrs. Gabbriellini’s first-grade class at Midland School. The class had pen pals!
Mrs. Gabbriellini’s daughter, Kayley, one of the RPNS students, was especially pleased.
The teachers helped the children open their letters and read them aloud. The nursery schoolers used inventive spelling to write back. There were a few exchanges of letters, and then one day, at meeting time, the children read a message on the board that said, “Good afternoon. Would you like to meet your pen pals?”
The children cheered loudly and decided to host a party for them. They decided they’d need to bake a cake, decorate the classroom, plan activities, and draw pictures as a parting gift.
The class was so excited the day the first graders arrived, and there was an instant connection.
Not long after the visit another package arrived in the mail at RPNS, this one containing an invitation for the students to come to Midland.
On a fine spring afternoon, children walked from RPNS to Midland. They left with lots to write about.
Mrs. Gabbriellini with her daughter, Kayley
New pen pals
Rye Presbyterian Nursery School teachers Amy Scher, at left, and Nicole Jadidian, right, with their 4-year-old class on a visit to the Rye Post Office