A story about a magic mailbox, a dragon, and tons of fun!
It Came in the Mail…
Wow, it is so much fun to get cards and gifts in the mail — no matter our age. It’s always a treat to get something in the mail that’s not a bill!
Kids love that element of surprise that comes from receiving an unexpected letter or package in the mail. In this story by Ben Clanton, the little boy desperately wants to get something in the mail. He checks the mailbox constantly! Unfortunately the mailbox is always empty. The little boy comes up with a brilliant idea to send a letter in hopes, he will get something in return. Not knowing who to write to, he writes a letter to his mailbox. Turns out this is a magic mailbox and this mailbox responds to the little boy and gives him a dragon. How cool is that!?!
The little boy writes more letters and gets more stuff. Seems pretty great, right? But soon he is overwhelmed by gifts from the mailbox. Yikes! Time for a new plan. The little boy realizes that other kids want to get mail too, so he asks his mailbox to help him send some of these gifts to other kids. Soon kids all over the world are receiving gifts through the mail and the little boy comes to the realization that it is fun to give, as well as receive.
My son and I really enjoy this book! We can relate to the excitement of getting something fun in the mail. The pictures are humorous and my son loves to pour over all of the detail in the illustrations.
Check your library for In the Mail by Ben Clanton. You can also purchase it through Amazon. If you do happen to purchase an item through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale to help cover the costs of this site. Thank you for your support. Happy Reading 🙂
NO-SEW ENVELOPES
My son loves to reenact his favorite books through play. I decided to make felt envelopes that we could use for play. He has a blast with these envelopes. My son loves to put little toys in the envelopes and “deliver” them to me. He is really imaginative and likes to pretend to be a mail carrier. We also leave notes and pictures for each other, and I occasionally will stick a new dollar-bin toy for him in one of his felt envelopes.
I had some leftover red felt, so we turned it into 2 no-sew envelopes. Wanting my son to be able to help make them, we used fabric glue to hold our envelopes together.
To make them, I picked a paper envelope that I had at home and measured it. Remember to the double the length of the rectangle, because you have to fold the felt when you make the craft.
Then I cut one long piece of felt, the size of my envelope.
I folded the bottom portion of the felt up to make the envelope shape. My 4 year-old added the fabric glue along the 2 sides. We used chip-clips to hold the sides of the felt together while the glue was drying.
The flap just falls over on its own, so I didn’t do anything extra to it. For our purposes, we don’t care that the flap doesn’t stay shut. However, you could add a button or Velcro if you want it to stay closed.
More Dragons!
–Check out my Dragon Book recommendations post. There are 10 awesome dragon stories to chose from — hopefully your library will have them.
–Count how many dragons you see in this Dragon I Spy challenge!
