HOW THIS PROJECT ORIGINATED

HOW THIS PROJECT ORIGINATED

The Stamp Network project began in March of 2011 when a student brought a gallon-sized plastic bag half-full of aluminum can pull tabs.  A group of second, third and fourth graders as well as two middle school classes performed some estimating activities using the tabs.  It quickly became evident that the concept of “one million” is very elusive to many children - as well as to some adults.  So to help us conceptualize a million, we decided to collect a “million of something” that met the following criteria:

           

Ø  The item had to be considered “free” for anyone to collect.

Ø It had to be small since storing a million of something could become an issue.

Ø The million items had to be utilized in making/building/designing  “something”

that could be contributed to our school or community, or, the item(s) could be sold and the proceeds used to develop or support a worthwhile project in our school or community.

It was a pretty simple plan.  Stamps started pouring in by the tens of thousands.  We received bags of stamps, boxes of stamps and stamp albums that people no longer wanted.  We collected USA stamps and stamps representing over 160 foreign countries. That first year we had 150,539 stamps, the second year 230,893 and in May of this year our total was 578,264.

We set up a blog to showcase some of the more interesting stamps in our collection and enable parents and community members to track the collection process.  We did well with the blog the first year but, with the overwhelming number of stamps that came in during the next two years, the blog did not get much attention.  It is our goal this year to revive the blog! amillionstamps.blogspot.com

K-6 students can become members of the The Stamp Network by collecting stamps and/or by working one recess a week to count, cut, sort and do research on interesting stamps. Students who choose to work during recess must complete an application and have it signed by a parent and a teacher before they can be interviewed. If they are hired they will be paid with play dollar bills which they can use for purchasing items from The Stamp Network Store.