Postcard Exchange

Mike Ryter, a Social Studies Middle School teacher from New Jersey, organizes a postcard exchange every year. I'm not sure when he started this, and I can't remember how I found out about it, but I've had students participating in this every year for probably 6 or 7 years or more. The goal is to have one school from each of the 50 states participate. Each school sends the 49 other schools a postcard with information about their school, city, and state.

I've had the students create Wisconsin themed artwork to use as the front of our postcard. Then I print our information on labels which get put on the back of the postcard. The students choose which school they'd like to send their postcard to. I also print a second copy to send home to their family to enjoy.

What do we do with the postcards that we receive? There are lots of great things that can be done with the postcards to enhance a variety of subjects. This past year we created a Google Map to display the locations of each card as it arrived. This is a great way to work on map skills. We also used the information on the postcards to learn about creating spreadsheets and charts. The students get to keep the postcard that we receive from the school their postcard was mailed to.