Abiding Dave's Absolutely Unique Philatelists in the Classroom

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01 - Give small packets of stamps as a reward to the students.

02 - Design a collage using postage stamps.

03 - When exploring various countries, give each student a representative stamp or currency to add to their collection.

04 - Convert the face value of a stamp into United States currency.

05 - Classify plants and animals in a stamp mixture.

06 - Establish a stamp trading center in your classroom for young collectors.

07 - Add stamps or currency to a wall map or poster as you tour the world.

08 - Have students select a stamp and write a story about the scene, animal, person or event depicted on the stamp.

09 - Select a stamp from a world wide mixture and write a report about the country that issued the stamp.

10 - Design a poster for a new stamp scheduled for release later in the year.

11 - Select a stamp that is scheduled for release later in the year. Draw a design (cachet) related to the stamps theme on an envelope. When the stamp is issued, place the stamp on the envelope and mail it to the "first day city" where the stamp was officially issued. Request that the stamp be canceled on the first day of issue.

12 - Develop your own inter-school postal system. Create postal stationary for the students to use to write to their peers and/or staff. Have a contest for the best design for the postal stationary stamp. Hold an official ceremony to unveil the new design and/or the first day of operation.

13 - Select a stamp featuring a famous person and write a short biography.

14 - Select stamps featuring historical events and create a time-line.

15 - Use a perforation gauge to measure the perforations for each stamp in a mixture. Determine the mode, range, median and mean for the perforations within the mixture. Repeat the same activity for a specific country. Graph your results.

16 - Search the web for other schools who might be interested in setting up a pen pale exchange with your class the old fashion way -- by writing a letter and sending it through the postal service. If you are sending to a foreign country, be sure to check for the proper postage rates and be sure to use commemoratives on your mail. The students might want to include in their letters a brief note about the topic featured on the stamp. A great way to enhance communication skills while building a stamp collection.

17 - Take the student through the higher order levels of thinking by using
Bloom's Taxonomy for this stamp project. Thought Process: #1- Knowledge: Define "stamp". #2- Comprehension: In the child's own words, explain "what" a stamp is and draw a picture to illustrate their findings. #3- Application: Use their prior knowledge in what ever way they want to "show"[demonstrate]. #4- Analysis: Clarify their findings, compare & contrast their findings in small groups with each other. #5- Synthesis: Design an original stamp to go along with whatever theme they may be studying and create a poem to go with it. #6-Evaluation: Have students create a scoring rubric that includes points given for each of the above 5 steps. Thanks to Tonie Bryant, Hackettstown, NJ

18 - Country Collage: Photocopy or sketch on paper different countries such as the map of Africa, Latin America, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, or the United States (with States). Have the students paste the stamps for that country (countries) selected over the photocopied or hand-sketched map. Assign groups of students to work cooperatively on an assigned country, or state. Once the entire World has been completed with the stamps from each continent, trim around the contour of each continent, glue and make your won World Map, or U.S. Map, or Country Map on poster board. Thanks to Charles Urban, School City of East Chicago, c/o Washington Elementary School, East Chicago, Indiana.

19 - See how many words of at least three letters can be found in the word "Philatelic" or "Stamp Collector."

20 - Coat of Arms - Before you begin the activity design a simple shield for the coat of arms containing six parts (leave space above the shield for a small photograph of the child). Duplicate enough copies for each child. You will also need a mixture of stamps, crayons, colored pencils, tongs and hinges. Instruct the students to select six stamps that tell something about themselves, or relate to something that interests them. Use the hinges to mount their stamps in place on their coat of arms and then write a brief statement below the stamp explaining its importance. Add color as needed and mount the child's photograph above the coat of arms. Ask the children to "present" (explain) their coat of arms to the class. Display each coat of arms for the parents to view when they visit.

21 - Introduce a new unit of study by giving students a small packet of stamps relative to the topic.

22 - Giving a report? Use a first day cover or stamp as a visual aid when introducing your topic.

23 - Promoting Student Understanding - The Trunk Activity: A) After showing the students a collection of artifacts that I have gathered and taken out of a large old traveling trunk, I give each child a construction paper folder in the shape of a trunk. Inside there a three pieces of paper with a rectangle box that they make an illustration of an artifact that interested them and lines to write a description. After they finish all three drawings they decorate their trunk with gold trunk straps, a key hole, an old key tied on with a piece of yarn, and stamps from the country (or countries) where the artifacts were found. B) The trunks are displayed on the hall bulletin board and they look great! The entire school gets to enjoy this project and many times I look out my classroom door to see students from other classes and grades taking a closer look at our stamps. Thanks to Muriel Alexander, Germantown, MD

24 - We are using stamps within our geography lessons. Use a large map as a bulletin board and collect stamps from all the countries around the world! Students "catch the spirit" of collecting and enthusiastically find information regarding that country and that particular stamp (Note: we also write letters to other countries, then from responses, we save the stamps!). Thanks to Rusty Arnold, Neodesha, KS

25 - Use the stamps as means to motivate the learning of United States and world geography. When a student demonstrates that he/she can identify the place of origin of the stamp, it is given to that student as a prize. "Maybe we will interest some in stamp collecting as well as teach them geography." Thanks to Lori Buchman, Fields, OR

26 - I think it would be a great idea to teach students about the President's of the United States by introducing them to the wonderful hobby of stamp collecting. A teacher could separate his or her class into small groups of four and have them write a sentence or paragraph about (examples:) the history, education, personality and hobbies, and political achievements about their assigned president. Not only will they learn about our presidents and stamp collecting, but the students will learn how to select and use reference materials. Also if they are assigned specific subjects, for example: place and year of birth, schooling, what age did president take office, how old was he, what number was he in the line of presidents, etc... this information will perhaps lead to a greater interest in history and stamp collecting. Thanks to Jennifer Ebanks, St. Petersburg, FL

27 - You could have a stamp collecting class. Ask local stamp stores to sponsor your efforts and donate any stamps and/or supplies that they might not need. I have used this idea with great success. You could provide the dealer a small free ad space in a bulletin or yearbook. Thanks to Gary Warners, Grand Rapids, MI

28. Design a zoo on a poster. Have the students select animals, represented on stamps, to add to the poster. Before adding the animal to the zoo, have the student report on the animals needs including space, food, water, shelter, temperature and light.

29. Design a arboretum on a poster. Have the students select trees and shrubs, represented on stamps, to be added to the poster. Before adding the tree or shrub to the arboretum, have the student report on the plants needs including space, soil conditions, water, temperature and light.

31. Make a crossword puzzle using common philatelic words and terms. (Check out our Philatelic Words and Terms page for additional words.)

32. Mount stamps on index cards and have the students attempt to identify as many as they can in a timed event.

33. Collect postmarks from around your state, the United States, or the World!

34. Use stamps from an inexpensive mixture to create craft projects. Make album covers, pencil holders, bookmarks, and gift or holiday cards.

35. Use Computer Clip Art to Make Topical Album Pages for the Students. Using any of the free (or inexpensive) clip art images found in many computer programs, arrange pages of the image (i.e. - Dogs, Cats, Dinosaurs, etc) with small rectangles for students to find and mount the stamps. Print the images on paper and create an entire topical album. Thanks to Shawn Pease (Collector, MA) and Donna Hoague (Special Education Teacher, FL).

36. Have a treasure hunt! Give each student a list of topics to look for on stamps and let them go through a box of stamps. They keep what they find. Finding special topics (like telephone, sun, crest, etc.) are rewarded with a 3-D stamp or other free stamp. Teaches observation, classification and comparison skills. Thanks to Mrs. Diane Sebastian, Poughkeepsie, NY.