Stamp-themed Lessons

Understanding the concepts of patterns and repetitions is an important developmental step for every young child. Most children learn these concepts through play, with colored blocks or shapes, or in the art and preschool classrooms. Using stamps to teach these concepts, can make for a wonderful alternative for your child.

Great stamps to use are the Navajo art blankets from 1986 (catalog #2235-38), Amish quilts from 2001 (catalog #3524-27), Rio Grande blankets from 2005 (catalog #3926-3929), and the Gee's Bend quilts from 2006 (catalog #4089-4098).

Not only known for their artistic merits, stamps also contain images of some of the greatest and most important historical figures of our time. From greats such as freedom fighter Martin Luther King to the King of rock n' roll Elvis Presley, stamps cover a wide range of important individuals sure to fit into any school lesson plan.

A few great stamps to use are the 1940 Famous Americans series (catalog #859-93), 1965-78 Prominent Americans (#1278-95), the 1980-1985 Great Americans (#1844-1969), the 1986-1993 Great Americans (#2168-2196), the 1986 Presidents Ameripex mini sheets (#2216-2219), the ongoing Distinguished Americans series (#3420-3436), and any stamps in the ongoing Black Heritage or Legends of Hollywood series.

History is important to us all, but with so many events and dates to remember, it can be a daunting subject to teach a child. Fortunately for us, postage stamps were created. Postage stamps often commemorate important events as they occur, such as the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. And many depict important past historical events, like the landing of Columbus on American shores.

Creating a time line with postage stamps is a great way for a child to learn history, without the droll repetition of written facts. The Celebrate the Century stamps from 1990s (catalog #3182-3191) are perfect for this activity. Each sheet of 15 stamps represents a decade worth of inventions, famous individuals, and important historical events.

Children love to explore nature and what better way than with stamps! The United States Postal Service issues an ongoing series of stamps called the Nature of America series, each depicting a snapshot of an American ecosystem, complete with plant and animal species. These stamp sheets feature beautiful paintings of deserts, forests, and oceans on the front side and a species identifier on the backside.

The nine issues in the series are the Sonoran Desert (catalog #3293), Pacific Coast Rain Forest (#3378), Great Plains Prairie (#3506), Longleaf Pine Forest (#3611), Arctic Tundra (#3802), Pacific Coral Reef (#3831), Northeast Deciduous Forest (#3899), and the Southern Florida Wetland (#4099), and the Alpine Tundra (#4198).

Perhaps the best aspect of stamps are their versatility. Stamps are small pieces of printed paper, which means whatever you can adhere paper to, you can adhere stamps to! There are many stamps that contain little or no value, from worldwide issues to used issues found on mail. Children can collect these squares from their mail or use photocopied images from catalogs, either way, once they have a large quantity, they can be decoupaged to just about anything.

Decoupage is a glue like material that can be applied to surfaces such as picture frames, boxes, book covers, pencils, and more. Once applied, stamps can be adhered to the surface with an additional coating of the material, creating a handsome crafted item any child can be proud of!