A post office dramatic play center is always a hit with the kids! You can easily set up a pretend post office at home or in the classroom with just a few basic supplies. What a great way to encourage imaginative play, as well as writing!

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Post Office Dramatic Play

Do your children love everything about the post office and mail like mine do? My 2 year old, Theo, goes absolutely crazy every time he sees a mail truck. My 5 year old daughter, Lucy,  is almost obsessed with checking our mailbox every afternoon. Both kids are constantly writing my husband and me little love notes and pictures.

I decided to build on my children’s interest in mail, writing, and imaginative play by creating this pretend play post office. It’s very simple to set up, and you don’t need some extravagant area or large space to do it. I just placed a small play table in the corner of our kitchen and used the chairs as a little shelf. (This post contains affiliate links.)

 

Materials We Use for Our Pretend Play Post Office

You can use just about anything for your pretend play post office. I looked around my house and grabbed things I thought the kids would enjoy using.

Writing Materials: I put out some notecards and paper along with some envelopes on the table. Both are in little baskets to keep them in place. I also placed some little cups of crayons and pens where they would be easily accessible for writing.

Once the kids have written their letters and placed them in an envelope, it’s time to get the envelope ready to mail!

 

Name Resource: I made a little poster right above the table for the kids  to use as a resource for addressing the letters and envelopes. It’s just a sheet of paper with a picture of each family member with the corresponding name right next to the photo.

Stamps: Once the envelope is addressed, the kids use little wooden stamps and a jumbo stamp pad to ‘stamp’ the letter to be mailed. (They love this part!)

Mailbox: This was the one item I decided to buy- a real mailbox. (You could make your own by decorating a shoebox or packing box.) The kids place their stamped letters in the mailbox for the mailman to pick up.

 

 

Mailbag: For the mailbag I used a plain canvas tote bag and decorated it with fabric markers.

The mailman collects the mail from the mailbox and places it in the bag to be delivered. Right now the mailman delivers the mail under each person’s bedroom door, but I’m thinking it’d be fun in the future to make our own personal mailboxes!

 

The Benefits of the Pretend Play Post Office

This is such a fun way to encourage writing (we’re always looking for fun writing activities for kids). Lucy is so motivated to write her thoughts and ideas onto paper, and Theo loves pretending to write just like his big sister!

 

Theo really loved putting things into the mailbox. When he heard us talking about putting letters in the mailbox, he ran and got his ‘letters’ (his felt stuffed toy letters) and started putting them in. Too cute!

 

I just love that both my kids enjoy using the pretend play post office- sometimes on their own and sometimes in imaginative play together. The dramatic play post office center is appropriate for just about any age. Toddlers enjoy making marks on paper, putting things into and taking things out of the mailbox. It’s such a fun way to encourage preschoolers and kindergarteners to write and create. Older kids can use this center to practice how to correctly write friendly letters and address envelopes. This would also make such a fun learning center for the classroom- especially around Valentine’s Day!