We get tons of it every week. Finally, something to do with all that stuff!
photo courtesy Wooties!
Younger kids:
- play post office and use it for the mail.
- cut out words, pictures, numbers for learning and review as flash cards
- use the grocery ads to create a pretend shopping list. Cut out the pictures of the items and glue to index cards. Tape a piece of bent index card to the back like a picture frame so it will stand upright. Set up a little store and practice shopping.
- Use the same cards to sort items by color, shape, food group, etc.
- Cut up junk mail for collage.
- Cut out words for creating new sentences or poetry.
- Play “I spy.”
- Use the mail to learn your address.
- Create a mailbox for them and fill it with junk mail they can open.
- When you get mail with stickers or stamps, let them play with them.
- Catalogs are great for clipping pictures for picture books and flash cards.
- Cut pictures from catalogs and give them as pretend gifts to each other.
For older kids
- Open up those credit card offers and analyze them. Calculate fees and interest and compare them against one another. Practice filling out the forms. Use it as a teaching tool.
- Compare grocery store ads and find the better bargain.
- Create a menu from the ingredients in grocery ads.
- Use sales letters as a template and write one of your own. Dissect it–grammar, word choice, use of punctuation and even the layout.
- Practice sticking to a budget with grocery ads and catalogs.
- Research unfamiliar foods and where they come from.
- Count how many different countries the grocery items come from.
- Use catalog pictures as writing prompts.
- Catalog item descriptions are great examples of concise, descriptive writing. Try to write your own.
My daughter “recycles” the envelopes. She is 5yo and is fascinated with mail. I give her the empty, used envelopes and she draws a picture or writes a letter to put in it. We tape it closed, and she gives it to someone.
Again – awesome, awesome ideas! Thanks for sharing!
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Great ideas! Bookmarking this!
I work from a home-based studio (read my house IS my studio) and am the homeschooling mom of one eight year old little girl. We are always looking for ways to “reduce, reuse, and recycle”. We cut up all of our food boxes (dry not freezer ones) for use as cardstock in art projects and even the junk mail isn’t safe.
Security envelopes can be cut up into ATC (artist trading card) sized pieces at 2.5″ by 3.5″. Glue the pattern to your cut up food boxes, add some paint, some art, trade them with friends.
Ever get those “You’ve been pre-approved!” credit card ads? I look forward to those. The fake credit cards most of them include make great glue cards. Sometimes I hit paydirt and they send a plastic one. Reusable! The paper ones last about four glue sessions (one for each side) if you wipe them clean each time.
My daughter loves to play mailbox. At 8yo, we have a little metal mailbox that she and I make cards and send them back and forth to each other through. The only thing I found bad about letting a child play with junk mail was paper cuts. Return envelopes have sharp edges.
And yes I know it sounds paranoid BUT: Always teach them to tell you if they get a paper cut and make sure you tend to it; we do straight alcohol. It may seem small but Jim Henson (Muppets) actually died from a staph infection from a paper cut. Be vigilant.
Awesome ideas!! Your creativity is inspiring!
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