Mail Delivery!

This envelope includes some stickers for stamps and many numbers for the address.

Here are some examples of how teachers are creating “playful” spaces for authentic writing experiences in their classrooms.

Children Write In-Role During Play

The “Post Office” centre serves as an example of children integrating writing into their role-play. In this example, the children visited the “post office” and wrote letters, addressed envelopes and drew stamps. They brought these to the mail clerk to send. The clerk placed the letters into mail boxes and, later, the teacher as the “mail carrier” came in with her mail bag and collected some mail for delivery. When she left, some children took on her role, and collected the remaining letters.

This envelope includes a picture/note, print for a name, numbers for part of the address, and a sun “stamp”.

With this type of writing-play scenario …

We noticed teachers:

• set up (initiate) the play scenario
• place writing materials at the dramatic play centres
• scaffold the children’s interactions by entering the play in-role

We observed students:

• integrate writing into their play narratives and roles
• write independently as they talk and play with peers
• sometimes use the writing as a way to interact with peers