Mail Carrier on Wheels: Deliveries on One-Way Streets

Carriers deliver envelopes around a chalk neighborhood with one-way streets and signs. Students practice reading signs, planning routes and riding legally.

How to play

1. Chalk map with one-way streets (arrows), a numbered mailbox at each corner and a central post office (5 min).
2. Each carrier picks up an envelope with an address and finds the shortest legal route to the mailbox (8 min).
3. Inspectors at intersections: anyone going the wrong way or rolling a stop goes back to the office with the envelope (8 min).
4. Pair delivery: one partner plans the route out loud and the other rides (6 min).
5. Count envelopes per team and discuss the smartest routes (3 min).

Rules

• Never ride against the arrow, even if it's shorter.
• Come to a full stop at stop signs.
• To drop an envelope in a mailbox, you must be stopped with a foot down.
• You win by envelopes delivered, not by speed.

Variations

Adaptations

• Students with low vision: a raised cardboard map to study the route beforehand and a guide partner.
• Students with limited mobility: run the post office assigning addresses or deliver in their chair.
• Students who struggle with direction: carry a small paper map.

Learning goals

• Respect traffic direction and signs.
• Plan a legal and efficient route.
• Keep control of the bike or scooter while making a decision.

Equipment for a class of 25

• kick scooters: 10
• bicycles: 10
• helmets: 30
• envelopes: 60
• chalk: 8
• cones: 20
• cardboard road signs: 10

Teacher tip

Prepare addressed envelopes before class and reuse them. If you are short on bikes or scooters, half the class plays on foot and you switch halfway.

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