Table of Contents
17. Here Comes a Letter
I am a letter. A letter written with a pen and paper by Reena to her friend Ahmed. I was put in a letter box. The postman took me out and put me in a big bag. Taking a ride on the postman’s bicycle, I reached the post office. There, I was taken out of the big bag and stamped hard. The stamp was of Agartala, from where my travel began.
After getting stamped I reached another big bag. This bag had many more letters, all heading for Delhi. The red postal van dropped me at the railway station. There I got into a train going to Delhi.
After a long journey of five to six days I reached Delhi. I was sorted as per the area mentioned in the address written on me. One more stamp was put on me. Finally, the postman dropped me at Ahmed’s house.
• Given below is the journey of a letter shown through pictures. The pictures are not in a sequence. Arrange these to get the correct sequence, by putting number in the circles.
| | _____ |
| | _____ |
| | _____ |
| | _____ |
| | _____ |
| | _____ |
| | _____ |
| | _____ |
• Reena wrote a letter to Ahmed. Write a letter to your friend in the class. Don’t forget to write your friend's name.
Everyone has written a letter. But where do we post it?
• Let us make a letter-box for the class.
1. Take an empty shoe box.
2. Paint it with red colour or paste red paper on it.
3. With the help of scissors make a slit in the cover of the box. The slit should be big enough for letters to be put in.
Now, letter box is ready!
Drop your letters in the letter-box. Now wait to receive the letter written to you by your friend.
One child will act as a postman. He or she will take out the letters from the letter-box and distribute them to all the children.
Did you enjoy reading your friend’s letter?
Just as you wrote a letter to your friend, in the same way, your friends and relatives must also be sending letters to you. Bring some letters from home to school. See how many different types of letters are there.
• What difference do you see in these letters?
• Which letters have stamps on them?
• Are all the stamps similar? What are the differences?
• Have you seen the stamp of the post office on these letters?
• Children will enjoy sharing their news by writing letters to their friends in the class. Motivate them to write letters. Collect a variety of postal forms we use. On page 110, woman has been shown working in post-office. Discuss difined gender rows in family and society.
• Collect different types of stamps and paste them below.
How did your letter reach your friend? It reached because your friend’s name and address was written on it.
• Write your full address on the postcard given below.
Reena’s letter reached Delhi by train. How do you think letters reached distant places when there were no trains?
Visit to a post office
Visit a post office near your house or school. Observe how letters reach here and are sent from here.
• What are the different kinds of items available?
• What are their costs?
• Can you send a message to your friend outside India using the postcard that Reena used?
• What other work takes place here?
• Ask the children to enquire from some old people how letters were delivered in olden times. Children might need help in writing the address on the postcards.
The understanding that old people are an important source to know about the past will encourage children to interact with them.
What is this! What are Razia and her Aapaa saying to each other about letter?
Aapaa, do you know - today we learnt about the journey of a letter in the class. I want to write a letter to nani.
You can write a letter! I am going to make a phone call. If you want, you can also come along.
Razia and Aapaa went out to make a phone call from a shop in the village. Aapaa dialled the phone number and both of them talked to nani. They gave money to the shopkeeper and returned home happily.
• Where all have you seen telephones?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• With whom do you talk on the telephone?
_______________________ _______________________ _______________________
_______________________ _______________________ _______________________
_______________________ _______________________ _______________________
• Which of the two do you like more - writing a letter or making a phone call? Why?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Gender discrimination/ gender biases needs to be discussed in the class such as use of technology, various profession by males and females.
• Telephones are of different types. Draw pictures of telephones you have seen.
• What all purposes can these telephones be used for?
Make your own telephone
For this you need two empty matchboxes or ice-cream cups and thread.
Make holes in both the matchboxes or ice-cream cups. Pass a thread through both the holes. Tie knots on both the ends of the thread. Your telephone is now ready. Ask your friend to put one end of the phone next to his ear and you hold the other end close to your mouth. Take care that the thread remains stretched and does not touch anywhere. Start talking.
• Design your own phone. Mention its special features? We wrote a letter. We also made a phone call. What are the similarities and differences between a letter and a phone call?
• What are the other means of sending messages if there is no post office?
• Allow children to improvise, draw and express their creative ideas. Keeping the child’s environment in mind, other means of communication such as mobile phones, e-mail, fax, etc., can be discussed. Children may be encourayed to find out changes in communication services from their elders they may be helped to use web links e.g. http:://www.indiapost.gov.in/MIBE/pages/content/Mail-Prod.aspx.