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Activity
Mail Time!
Activity Description
If you have a mail box, you're sure to have a pile of junk mail. Everyone gets some amount of junk mail-from store advertisements to credit card applications, and political brochures to appeals for charitable donations. Most of the time, you toss it right into the recycle bin. Instead, sort through the mail and talk about what you find for a fun literacy activity before recycling it!
Why This Is Helpful
By investigating junk mail, children learn to think about and question what they see and read. In the process, they develop their critical thinking and analytical skills. With more practice, children can learn skills to become critical consumers of all media-from television ads to magazine ads and junk mail to billboards.
This activity was modified from the ReadWriteThink lesson plan "Investigating Junk Mail: Negotiating Critical Literacy at the Mailbox."