Postcard lessons
Nabanita Deshmukh
What does a teacher do when she finds a stack of old postcards in her attic; letters written years ago by people residing in different parts of the world? “No one uses postcards these days so what do I do with so many of them?” she laments. But she need not worry. Here are some ideas on how to use postcards to make learning fun and exciting!
Locating places
Postcards are great ways to teach children about people and places. In a geography class especially, postcards are invaluable.
Materials required: Picture postcards, atlases or globes.
Procedure: Choose a variety of postcards from different countries and distribute them to students. Ask each one to locate the country depicted on the postcard on an atlas or globe. To make the activity more exciting, the student who locates the country first can be proclaimed the winner.
Memory aids
Postcards can be used as teaching aids to improve spelling, vocabulary, memory and observation.
Materials required: Notebooks, pens, picture postcards (3 nos.).
Procedure: The teacher shows three postcards to her students and lets them observe the pictures for five minutes. The teacher then hides the postcards and asks the students to note down as many sights as they remember. The students with the maximum number of accurate answers will gain points.
Letter writing
Postcards can also be used to teach letter writing to students.
Materials required: Used postcard (1 no.).
Procedure: The teacher reads out a letter written on the reverse side of a postcard and indicates the different parts:
• The heading contains the return address, the date, etc.
• The inside address has the address of the receiver.
• The greeting or salutation is found at the start of the letter.
• The body contains the text or the message.
• The complementary is the ending.
• The signature line is where the sender signs his/ her name.
As an exercise, the teacher asks her students to write a letter to a friend about his/her country or a favourite holiday destination. The letter can then be read out or pasted on the classroom wall for others to read and enjoy.
Postcard making
Children love crafts so why not encourage them to make their own postcards? The exercise will help develop creativity, geographical knowledge and team spirit if done as a group activity.
Materials required: Chart paper, glue sticks, sketch pens, rulers, scissors and pictures from travel magazines.
Procedure: The teacher divides the students into groups and gives each group a postcard and craft materials. Each group has to make attractive postcards. Once the cards are made, the teacher can display them prominently on the classroom wall and ask students to talk about the postcard making experience.
Guessing game
Guessing games motivate students, especially the distracted ones, to learn new concepts and to communicate better.
Materials required: Picture postcards of five different countries.
Procedure: The teacher shows five different picture postcards to her class, lets the students observe them for a few minutes and numbers them from 1-5. She then picks out a postcard and shows it to one particular student but not to the others. The student has to provide five clues to his classmates for guessing which postcard he/she has seen. The teacher then gives postcards to each student and they have to play the same game with a partner.
Postcard’s journey
Postcards travel a long way from the place of origin to their destinations. Teachers could use old postcards to make the study of geography serious and stimulating.
Materials required: Atlases, globes, old postcards.
Procedure: The teacher reads out the sender’s and the receiver’s addresses written on the reverse side of old postcards. The teacher then asks students to trace the card’s journey on their maps. The students will make an imaginary journey through new countries with different physical features while doing this activity. The teacher could later ask students to make a list of the countries they crossed along with their geographical features such as lakes, mountains, rivers, forests, etc. Older students could use the GPS on their laptops or phones to navigate their way through.
Postcards as writing prompts
Have you tried using picture postcards as prompts to encourage children to write? These authentic resources motivate children to express their feelings creatively and develop good writing skills.
Materials required: Picture postcards, notebooks, pens.
Procedure: The teacher distributes picture postcards to students and asks them to write a paragraph on them. The teacher encourages students to express their emotions and impressions by choosing the right expressions, structures and vocabulary learned in class.
Postcards may seem like nothing more than pretty little cards but they are invaluable. Inexpensive, handy and available online or in shops, they can be used with students in a variety of ways. Enliven the classroom by introducing postcards through a game, as writing prompts or geographical activities for children. But why only children? Old postcards are interesting for grownups, too. They soothe our sentiments. They take us down memory lane where letter writing was a necessity. Isn’t it time now to bring postcards out of oblivion and give them the importance they truly deserve?
The author is a teacher, a teacher educator and writer of children’s stories and poems. She can be reached at deshmukh.nitu@gmail.com.
