Design It!

Have you ever looked carefully at a stamp and thought about the country it came from? These lessons guide you and your students in recognizing national American imagery that is on stamps and guide you into developing your class’s own ideas for stamp designs, giving equal weight to the importance of national symbolism and the employment of design skills for very small works of art.

The lessons include supporting materials for teachers and fun activities and worksheets for students. The hands-on curriculum helps students to understand the importance of stamps in their own nation and gives them the skills to communicate those messages through a visual medium.

At the end of the curriculum, students will have an opportunity to design their own stamp, applying their lessons into the design; the stamp design activity serves as a great assessment tool for teachers.

This interdisciplinary curriculum is flexible because you can determine how much information and time you want to focus in your classroom discussion. Supplemental materials for students can easily be photocopied. For more fun and content to add to the discussion, check out additional suggestions and activities on the resource page of each unit.