11/15/2019
To celebrate this holiday, members of the APS staff traveled to two school districts local to Bellefonte to share stamp collecting with students through the StampsTeach program.
At Friends School, APS visited two elementary school classrooms and two middle school classrooms, with more than 70 participating students. Later that day at Centre Hall Elementary, APS visited two fourth-grade classrooms with nearly 40 students.
These were the take-away questions that every student was able to answer by the end of the lesson.
Cathy Brachbill, Director of Education, shared fun facts about postage stamps and their invention with the kids, and answered their questions about sending mail and the post office. She also brought a large example of a postage stamp, which students used to identify the important elements of a postage stamp, including the design, denomination, and country of issue.
Cathy and Kathleen Edwards, Youth Coordinator, also shared images of stamps that inspire us to learn more about famous explorers and leaders, space, botany, geography, and the United States' history.
Kids participated in a group activity where they found stamps depicting topics that they enjoy, stamps from different countries, and stamps with a person, place, or thing. At the end of the lesson, each student took home the stamps that they'd found, along with a gift bag with more stamps, a starter album, and information about the local youth stamp club, Stamp Hunters.
The APS team also presented each teacher with a StampsTeach package, which contains stamps, a Symbols of America as Told by Stamps theme reader, worksheets, and access to free online lessons. With the materials in the StampsTeach package, teachers have resources to continue using stamps as teaching aids during lessons.
Shelley Feltenberger (Centre Hall) shared with her students how proud she was of their behavior while looking through the piles of stamps.
"You weren't just thinking of stamps that you liked. You were thinking of each other, and how a stamp might be a good fit for your classmates. That shows how well you know each other and how thoughtful you are of each other's interests."
At the end of the visit to Friends School, E. (a fourth grade student), asked "What's in the box?" (image right).
"More stamps," Cathy said.
"Yes! I'm gonna collect stamps forever!"
Thank you to Friends School and Centre Hall Elementary for welcoming the APS into your classrooms for National Philanthropy Day.
Below: Discover a gallery of photos from National Philanthropy Day 2019.
Susanna Mills
Susanna Mills is the editor in chief at the American Philatelic Society.
To pitch an idea or submit an article for The American Philatelist, contact the APS editorial staff at [email protected].
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