Remember the cute kids who serenaded Postcrossing last year with a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday, both in English and Maori?
Awwww… 😍
The little ones come from Koputaroa, a rural area in the North Island of New Zealand. Their Postcrossing account, Kererū, is both the name of their learning centre and the name of a bird native to the islands. The class has been on Postcrossing for 2 years now, and sent over 400 postcards… they’re very enthusiastic! :) We talked to their teachers about their class and Postcrossing.
- How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?
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We came across Postcrossing after making connections with kindergartens and other childhood centres around the world. While many who responded to us were in USA, we wanted to communicate with more centres around the world. A Google search turned up Postcrossing and so our exciting journey began. The children’s delight in receiving postcards of different peoples and places around the world kept us hooked.
- Do you have any other interesting hobbies?
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We have 3 teachers who have different hobbies. Helen is keen to travel the world and later this year is heading over to Europe with her family for a holiday. Sharee loves listening to music and adores One Direction and Ed Sheeran. I (Faye) personally like to read science fiction books and also enjoy being on my computer.
- Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!
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This is the mailbox in Foxton where all our cards are sent from. My husband considers it a personal job for him to actually put the cards in the box each time!
- What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?
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The children love visiting the mailbox at the end of the drive to see if the mail van has left anything for them. They also love choosing the cards that gets sent to the receiving participant. A lot of thought goes into choosing just the right one.
- Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.
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This is the prize we won for our video contribution to Postcrossing’s 10th birthday. The children absolutely love it and gather around it at reading time each day to see where Wally is. They consider it a challenge to see how fast they can find Wally! - Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?
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We are absolutely thrilled to receive our two cards from the African continent, and hope for many more. The children have loved the many Finnish postcards that we received before Christmas that had Santa on them.
- Is there anything that you are passionate about?
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We work with children aged between 2–5 years so anything that interests them on a daily basis is what we are passionate about. With Postcrossing, they love receiving cards which show different foods, dress, cultures, buildings and animals.
This is the prize we won for
17 comments so far
Thank you for sharing the informations. I am happy, when I can write a postcard to a school-class or a kindergarten....
Congrat teachers for your love to your kids. They are cuties and this experience surely will remain in their minds and souls.
Lovely story, hope to send something to them one day. Happy postcrossing to all the kids...and go on maybe they get postcrossers too if they are older
I think Postcrossing is a wonderful hobby for children. I have been doing it with my children since they were around this age. It's a great way to share the larger world outside of their comfort zone. To have them learn about other cultures and people. Great job, teachers!
Great story. The children must have great fun learning about the world through the postcards they receive.
Lovely kids and teachers! Love to sent a postcard to you! Hope one day to draw your profile for an official.
KIA ORA to New Zealand from Germany!
You are doing a great job with those children - having friends all over the world is the first step towards making this planet a better and hopefully more peaceful place!
My son spent three months in NZ several years ago, and he loved it. I can only dream about such a trip, but now I have joined POSTCROSSING which makes some of my dreams come true...
Bravo to the teachers who have included Postcrossing in the early learning activities for these children. May the joy of snail mail continue to delight these children throughout their lives!
What a great job is doing the teacher! I recently swapped with that school, I showed their postcards to my pupils, and I'm very happy to imagine taht my cards where in their hands and classed in these boxes (good idea!).
WOW. Hope I get their address one day, or they get mine. I think One Direction is just awesome, so are sci-fi books.
So nice to read this story about the children enjoying the post cards!!! Keep up the GREAT WORK Teachers.... opening the world up to them!! :)
Before Christmas I got a very beautiful postcard from Kereru and I'm very glad to see the children now in the video. My childrens group at work was also very astonished and proud to get a message from New Zealand (I had ask something to our projekt at work) and we read it together. You make a very good work!
Really " Awwww... 😍 " , for the children and the teachers ! The teachers are doing a great job with the children <3 !
Nice, I would love to be a teacher in a Kindergarten and play with the cards. You can learn so many things from them to the kids. Nice boxes! Hope one day I can send you a postcard!
Great to see you received three Irish cards including mine. I hope you will all continue to enjoy postcards including the teachers who are doing a great job.
Kia ora katoa. Wow, thank you all so much for your awesome comments. We at Kereru Children's Learning Centre love Postcrossing and the opportunities it provides for the tamariki - children - to learn about the world around them. We get so much wonderful information from everyone once they know they are sending a card to a preschool. One of the best parts of this activity is choosing which card gets sent to each person. If makes the children think about what the person would like and if two or more cards are liked then it is a democratic decision between them all to select the one that goes. We hope that our postcrossing experience goes on for a long time as we continue to learn. Haere Ra Kereru
Very nice interview. :)