During their school’s “Alternative Learning Week”, the students from an Italian school embarked on a special project that took them on a journey through time, rediscovering the beauty of postcards and stamps. This initiative, led by their teacher Matteo Aldrovandi (aka mattyboy3y) aimed to introduce students to the magic of traditional correspondence, stamp collecting, and the joy of waiting for a postcard in an increasingly digital and fast-paced world. Here’s Matteo’s report of that special activity!
Hi everyone! I’m Matteo, a teacher at Scuola Secondaria di I grado ‘B. Croce’ in Gonzaga, working with three first-year classes (students aged 11 years old). Our “Alternative Learning Week” is all about breaking away from traditional teaching methods and exploring new, enriching experiences. Thanks to the Postcrossing forum, I connected with Ana (aka Anacalma), a Spanish teacher working with students with motor disabilities. When we realized that both of our classes had around 70 students, we saw the perfect opportunity for a “direct swap” between our schools. And just like that, with the help of Postcrossing, our adventure began!
The project unfolded in several exciting phases. First, my Italian students explored the fascinating history of postal communication through archival videos from Poste Italiane website, learning how stamps and letters have played a crucial role over the centuries. Then, they took part in a fun and engaging challenge: voting for the “Most Beautiful Stamp of 2024,” a competition that sparked their curiosity and appreciation for stamp design.
But the real highlight of the experience was the creation of personalized postcards. With enthusiasm and creativity, each student designed their own unique postcard, which they then carefully addressed and stamped—many of them for the very first time! These special postcards were sent across borders to their peers in a secondary school in Madrid, Spain, turning this into a truly international exchange.
None of this would have been possible without Postcrossing! Through this initiative, my students not only experienced the excitement of sending a tangible message but also discovered the anticipation and joy of receiving a postcard in return, perhaps even starting new international friendships or sparking a newfound interest in stamp collecting and postcard writing. Who knows? Maybe among these young participants, there are future postcrossers… or even the designers of a future Italian postage stamp!
A heartfelt thank you to the Postcrossing team, to Anacalma, and to everyone who helped make this project possible. This experience proved that even in the digital age, the charm of postcards and stamps remains as magical as ever!
70 comments so far
What a great story - loved how Postcrossing helped make the connection. More power to the teachers and students - have fun!!
Fantastic story! As an ESL teacher, I love this alternative method of teaching!!
Just love this! Thank you for sharing!!!
What a great learning experience for students at both schools!
This is great, love it!
Sweet, Matteo.What lucky students you have with a clever, kind, caring teacher. A wonderful connection. Madeline
I think this is such a wonderful activity. I hope it brings back the love of writing by hand, and building a love of the anticipation of a postcard or a letter. Rather than the immediate fix of receiving an email. I think the cards they made are so beautiful. Well done to all.
Great! I hope we have a chance to experience such activities too XD
Wow, there are some talented artists. Those postcards are fantastic. Enjoy the journey,
What a fabulous learning opportunity! great work!
Oh my god, the cards drawn by the children are so cute. This kind of activity is really good. I hope every child can participate.
This is so beautiful! Uplifting and wholesome; the world needs more. Thank you for guiding and encouraging your students in creativity, thoughtfulness, and international relations.
Lovely idea, congratulations!
Love this story, thanks for sharing! Matteo, please tell your students how much joy their efforts and explorations have brought to many others around the world who have now heard about them
Truly interesting! It reminded me of Montessori schools' proactive learning principle. There are also non-scheduled own learning lessons in each Montessori school (no frontal teaching but "freework" lessons where pupils plan their work on their own). Also there are likewise creative projects in this. I was a Montessori pupil for ten years, one of the first two pupils who graduated in this semester term back then in 2005. It's not in my profile, because it's only a part of who I am, but as a woman with motoric impairment as well, I see how it does teacher Matteo 's pupils so well to let out the creative vein within all of us! Bravo, Scuola di Gonzaga! And always try to to the first step in connections, it will pay off! Beautiful card designs!
Super idea! Love the drawings. Real little artists in your classes!
❤️ what a great idea!
It Is beautiful
Thank you for sharing your project. We need more projects like this that connect students in such a personal way.
What a wonderful activity! It's always so exciting to see students really get into sending and receiving postcards and mail.
What a great idea! And the postcards are truly beautiful :) Well done
I love it!
Cool!
Hope plenty of teachers get inspired by this example.
Hola, muy bien
Highly appreciable projects by both the schools and thoughtful teachers and creative students. I would like to send one postcard to each of the school. Please send me the addresses.
Keep it up. Friendship build through postal exchange is always clean and gives happiness.
Very nice idea and experience! 🙂❤️
What a great story --- love the connections that Postcrossing can share with us! I sent a postcard in the past to Matteo @mattyboy3y ... way back in 2008!
Great activity to spark the interest of postcard and arts in kids nowadays as the technology evolve rapidly.
Matteo,You are really a good teacher. You are a sower of wisdom and teach students by word and example. Learning is a journey without end,I hope the children have a good time.
That's a wonderful experience! The children's works are colorful and adorable. Thank you for showing us the photos.
Great idea! And wonderful activity. I think the pupils like these kind of lessons.
Good idea, and the cards are so creative!
Beautiful idea & wonderful activity!
BRAVO!
xoxo
Such a great idea! And super creative and fun! I’m glad to see this wonderful hobby come alive in schools.
Hello Matty! What a wonderful class! I hope children today can also enjoy writing letters and postcards, and feel the excitement of receiving them.
This is amazing. The joy of tangible mail, it'd be great if they make new friends overseas. I hope it continues. I've certainly enjoyed connecting with pen friends through postcrossing. Well done those teachers.
What a great activity Matteo! I still remember doing a penpal exchange with a class in Florida (I lived in Nevada, USA in grade 3. My penpal and I ended up exchanging postcards and letters for years. I believe that was the start of my love for handwritten correspondence!
Thanks to both teachers for creating this opportunity for your students❤️
P.S. The artwork on the postcards is amazing! I love handmade postcards and am so thrilled when I receive a handmade card through postcrossing. Your class is filled with artists.
Congratulations to teachers like Matteo who engage in activities outside the required curriculum that expose students to fun, yet meaningful, creative experiences.
To all postcrossers, Hello! A wonderful initiative by my postcrosser friend Matteo mattyboy3y and Spanish teacher Anna, who as part of the "Alternative Education Week" held an event for students that introduced students from two schools to the magical magic called postcrossing.
Happy postcrossing!
Postcrossing is a unifying and kind force, and it's great to be a part of it.
What a fun learning activity! I also see a lot of future postcrossers there! :)
Such a lovely and creative learning experience that must've been!
Well done Matteo and Anna! It's such an interesting project! I wish I had the opportunity to participate in a similar activity, growing up. I love that the students designerd their own cards.
Matteo, that's a great idea! Children are very creative by themselves! You have very talented students!😍 When my children give me postcards that they made themselves, for me they are the most magnificent postcards in the world 🤗 Let this creative experiment become a good tradition.👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
This is certainly very heartwarming! I loved reading about this! And I wonder, which stamp did they vote as the “Most Beautiful Stamp of 2024”?
Matty, I wish I could time travel and have you as my teacher at age 11. What a wonderful educational experience you, along with Ana, provided for your students.
Ohh my dear Matteeo!
You’re amazing person. You give children a great job and a bright future.
Love it! Your blog feature on Postcrossing is awesome, Matteo. Huge congrats!
Congratulations!!! As a teacher I may say that those projects are great!!! I have a "`Post cards project" in my 5th grade classes since 2022 in Brazil... and people all over the world help kids to discover about how amazing os our planet!
Love it! This is so educational!
This is so amazing! I wish we had such varied opportunities to learn as kids. The children are very lucky to have such a passionate teacher. Good luck, Matteo!
Kudos! What a lovely way of connecting young people across boarders. We need more of this kind.
This is such a wonderful initiative, Matteo! It warms my heart to see young students learning about the history and joy of postal communication and postcard exchange. What a fantastic "Alternative Learning Week" activity!
As one of Matteo's pen pals, I can personally attest to his genuine love and passion for postal communication. It truly overflows through every letter and postcard he sends me! You can feel the care and thought he puts into each piece. Proud of Matteo for ensuring that a new generation is introduced to the tangible connection and the unique charm that physical mail offers, something that can sometimes be lost in our increasingly digital world. Projects like this is so important in reminding us of this special connection.
Congratulations to you and Anacalma, and your students for this enriching international exchange!
Such a lovely and thoughtful idea and execution!
Congratulations to you and Anacalma for bringing this to the students!
And loads of love and wishes to all the children who explored many things through postcards!
I am amazed at the passion you both have!
What a wonderful experience! Best of luck and success!
So wonderful to encourage children to do something so fun and interesting.
Matteo, this is fantastic! Thanks for sharing it!
I am so glad to keep communication with you!!!
What a fantastic idea,an introduction to snail mail through merely fun game activity.Sparking creativity,curiosity and human being connection.Commendable to similar age group/school set up .Good work,keep it up
What a great idea! Just super
I'm glad to keep in touch with you Matteo✨️
Nice inspiring intrusive! Thank you for sharing! ☺️
It is so cool, Matty! I love it!
I love these kinds of activities! A few years ago, I also used postcards with my students, thanks to Postcrossing. And I hope to do it again in the future!
Dear Matteo, school and life teacher, congratulations for the spirit of initiative that helps the boys to be entrepreneurial and to cultivate human relationships!
I also want to underline the common thread between Gonzaga, which gave its name to an important family that played such a significant role in the promotion of arts and culture during the Renaissance.
I remember, in fact, that the Gonzaga princes, who ruled Mantua for almost 4 centuries (from 1328 to 1708), were one of the main patrons of the Italian Renaissance, commissioning works from famous artists such as Andrea Mantegna and Claudio Monteverdi, and transforming Mantua into an important cultural and artistic center.
This type of patronage has helped create an artistic legacy that has also influenced the following centuries, and I am sure that it has reached you in the creation of these small works of art.
I wish you to continue to grow together with the little women and men of the future, always learning from the past while looking to the future.
What a fantastic experience for those students and a wonderful learning opportunity. I love how postcrossers get connected and create this marvelous activities for others, specially children. Thank you for sharing, Matteo.
Blooms taxonomy at work here!! the upper triangle flourishes again!!
Kids learning 'hands on' vs looking at screens all day- learning across all subject areas. I love it!! I'm sure many of these kids will remember this lesson for the rest of their lives. WTG teachers!
Wow, what a great initiative! I would love to do something like that if I were a kid! Good job, Matteo and Ana :)
I believe that personal created (and painted!) postcards is a fantastic idea, Matty!
I'm honored to be your penfriend and I wish your students to discover the World fhrough Postcrossing with great inspiration!
Hello Matteo! Thank you for sharing this wonderful story!
OMG! I have tears in my eyes! How wonderful! I wish I could see their faces when they receive their first postcards. At the age of 66 I still get excited when I get my mail and there is a postcard. Thank you, Teachers, for your service as well.
Peewee
As a pre-kindergarten teacher, I collected postcards, especially art cards for my class. Wherever I went in the world I went to museums, and always went to the museum gift shop seeking more cards. It was expensive, but so worth it!!! I laminated them and kept them in baskets. We used them for classification, for discussion, for making up stories, and many other activities. It may have been my most valuable teaching tool. When I started postcrossing, that gave me even more cards.
Wonderful....
As An English teacher, I really want to connect with this class.
May be, some of my student can receive those lovely italian -postcard.
Greeting from East Indonesia
This is so great 🥰
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