- [Teacher] This module is sponsored by
A D Henderson Foundation.
(playful music)
- We are at the post office to mail a letter
and find out what happens to it.
Where do we mail our letter?
- In the mail box.
- Who can tell me why this is called a mailbox?
- It's a box and you put mail in it.
- That's right, because it's a box and you put mail in it.
This is a compound word, it's called mail box.
So what would the letter be called if
we put it in the box?
Mail.
And this is the box.
But why can't we mail our letters?
- There's no stamp.
So let's go inside and get a stamp
so we can put our letters in the..
- Mailbox.
- Perfect.
Let's go.
Thank you.
- Hi, welcome to the post office.
May I help you?
- Yes, I'm Penny, and these are the KidVision
VPK Kids, and we have letters we would like to mail,
but we need stamps.
- Okay, I'm going to take you over to Gladys.
She has some fun stamps for you to mail
your letters out today.
- Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
- Good morning.
- My name is Gladys.
How can I help you?
- We need stamps.
- We need stamps, but we wanna make sure
that our address is correct.
What is on the address of the envelope?
- Let me read your return address here.
Name, address, and zip code.
And here, where it's going to.
Name, address, and zip code.
Let me see the other ones.
- Everyone check. - Um hum.
- Check your letters.
Make sure you have your name,
your street address,
your city, state, and your zip code.
So what are we missing?
- [Kids] Stamps.
- [Penny] Our stamps.
- [Gladys] We need one stamp,
and we're going to put it on our envelope.
- Where does the stamp go?
- Just peel, right here.
- [Penny] It goes on the empty corner of the envelope,
that's correct.
Can you put your stamp on the empty corner?
- [Gladys] Just peel this down.
- [Kid] Do we have to rip the stamp out?
- [Penny] Yes, it's stickers.
Stamps are stickers.
You're doing a good job of peeling it.
- [Kid] I want one of those.
- So stamps look different even though
they're the same amount?
- Yes, the same amount, yes.
- [Penny] And why does it cost money to
mail a letter?
- Because we have expenses to cover.
- The money that you pay to buy a stamp helps
pay all the workers and keeps the facilities
open so that we can have a post office.
And now, what happens next?
- Next, we're gonna put it in here and
gonna take it to the mailbox.
- Penny and the kids, I'm gonna introduce you
to Billy, who's a letter carrier here.
- Hi Billy.
- Good morning Penny.
Good morning children.
Thanks for coming into the postal service today.
I'd like to tell you all about my job.
This route here is number thirty-seven.
So anything that goes to route thirty-seven,
comes to me.
I have letters,
and we call these flats.
And I also have many different sizes of boxes
and packages.
Like this package right here,
or a parcel.
What shape is this?
- Rectangle. - A rectangle.
- All right.
Sometimes, we also have packages like this.
- What shape is that?
- A cylinder. - A cylinder.
- Good job kids.
Can you tell me what shape is that letter?
- Rectangle. - It's a rectangle.
And I see he's got some..
These magazines are called flats.
Why do you think they're called flats?
- Because they're flat.
And what shape is that?
- A rectangle?
- It's a rectangle, good job.
- And then this all goes into the case.
I put it all together,
Then I go to my packages,
and I line my packages up.
And I pull all the mail down,
and I load it in this hamper.
And then I roll this hamper out to my truck.
Let's go outside.
- [Penny] Okay.
- And I'll load up my parcels.
(happy music)
- Okay, here we are.
Out at my mail truck.
As you can see, there's a big eagle
emblem on the back of the truck.
And this tells you that this vehicle
is with the United States Postal Service.
So when you see this vehicle,
you know the mailman is in the neighborhood.
I wear a special uniform,
special shoes that protect my ankles
in case I step in a hole, or step on a rock
and I would twist my ankle.
This way I don't hurt it.
I always have to have white socks
with nice, bright colored stripes.
I have to have blue pants with a stripe down the side.
And a blue shirt.
I always have to have my identification badge
on so people know who I am when I'm out there
delivering the mail.
And I also have the insignia right here.
And my hat, but because I work outside in the sun,
I always like to switch my hat when I get outside,
and I put this sun hat on to keep my face out of
the sun so that I don't get sunburned.
- Look inside.
How do you organize your letters when
you put them in the mail truck?
- I load them up in a nice, straight line
all the way to the back of the cabin.
These packages are called SPRS..
- SPRS
- Because they're not in a regular box,
and they're not flat.
They're a different shape.
They're not a letter or a magazine.
I take my packages,
and the package I'm going to deliver first,
I put in the front of the cabin.
And the packages I'm gonna deliver last,
I put in the back of the cabin.
I've already put all my letters and my
flats together in separate bundles.
This is First Street,
this is Second Street,
and this is Third Street.
So as I park at each block,
I can just take the mail for the section
of the route that I'm going to deliver.
And I deliver to the same addresses every day.
So I get to know all my customers.
They become like family to me.
And it really makes me feel good that I
can make my customers happy on a daily basis.
I'm gonna load these last packages and SPRS
into my vehicle,
so I can get ready to go out and deliver
to all my customers.
- Thank you very much.
It was very nice to meet a mail carrier.
- Thank you Penny.
It was my pleasure.
You too children, you've been wonderful today.
Thank you so much for coming to the post office.
- That's terrific.
Thank you very much for telling us about
the post office.
- No problem, than you for coming,
Penny and the kids, and any time you're
in the area, feel free to stop by and visit.
- Bye bye packages.
- Bye. - Bye.
(playful music)