A Postcard Exchange is a Great Learning Experience!

You might want to participate in a fantastic activity for your classroom - a postcard exchange. Here is how it works: a teacher organizes an exchange, and finds 50 different teachers to sign up - each teacher represents one state in America. 
Each teacher works with their classroom to collect 50 postcards representing their state. They also brainstorm together what would be interesting to share about their state and town. The teacher organizing the exchange shares the addresses of all involved, so each teacher can easily print out and glue down the addresses onto their postcards.

On a certain date in the school year, each teacher involved in the exchange has to mail their stack of 50 postcards. What happens next is amazing! Your classroom will receive a postcard from every state!

Besides making a fantastic bulletin board, your students can learn so much with a postcard exchange. They can learn facts typed up on the postcards, see what interesting places there are to visit in each state, learn the locations of states as you track which postcards have arrived, and they can also learn about their own state as you have your students help you write a few paragraphs that will printed and glued onto all of the postcards that you will mail out.

To save on postage costs, I ask my school or district to pay the postage. I also ask each student to try and bring in 3-4 postcards. For those students that can't get to RiteAid or the local drug store and buy postcards, I have them pay me a quarter for each postcard I have bought.  Many of my students are thrilled to pay a few quarters for some postcards to mail out.

Don't buy the extra large postcard size, or your postage will be higher! 

For the past 17 years, I have been running a very popular and successful postcard exchange. The reason many people stay with our exchange for years is that everyone who signs up participates! It is very disappointing to belong to an exchange where you only receive 20 postcards instead of 50, due to low participation. 

Our postcard exchange takes all grade levels. I will send you labels so it is very easy to mail your postcards out. You will receive in November a postcard from each state and one from Canada too.

If you teach in Nebraska please send me an email to join our exchange!   franciesfocus@gmail.com

We need a teacher from NEBRASKA!
        
Be sure to include your email address and your school mailing address so I can begin corresponding with you!

If you don't see your state listed, there are other exchanges you can join. Try the Post Office posts at ProTeacher, and the Classroom Project posts at Teachers.net