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How Email Gets Delivered

Sixth graders trace what really happens when you hit send, as a message hops from your device to mail servers across the internet and lands in someone's inbox seconds later, and put the steps in order.

Grade 6How Email Gets Delivered50 minutes1 class periodUse → Modify → CreateExplicit teaching4 StandardsCSTA
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Lesson at a Glance

Everything you need before the bell rings

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to…

  • ✓See how email travels.
  • ✓Know the role of mail servers.
  • ✓Follow the path.
  • ✓Order the steps.
Essential Question

You press send and seconds later your message is in an inbox across the world. It did not travel in a straight line, so what are the steps in between?

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Lesson Phases
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Vocabulary Terms
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Standards Aligned
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Interactive Task
Order the Steps · Interactive

Order the Steps

Project this and put the steps an email takes in order — tap each one from pressing send to landing in the inbox.

📧 Put the steps of email delivery in orderTry it
Tap the steps an email takes in order, starting the moment you hit send.
The Lesson · Use → Modify → Create (a coding progression with Unplugged practice)

50 minutes, five moves

Tap any phase to open the teacher moves and student actions.

1

Hook — What Happens When You Hit Send

5 min

You type a message, press send, and seconds later it is in someone's inbox across the world. It did not travel in a straight line. What are the steps in between?

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Ask what happens after you send.
  • Collect guesses.
  • Set the goal.

🎒 Student Actions

  • Think.
  • Share.
  • Get ready.
2

Use — Order the Steps

12 min

Students put the email-delivery steps in order.

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Send students to Order the Steps.
  • Order the steps.
  • Name each one.

🎒 Student Actions

  • Order.
  • Say.
  • Note it.
3

Modify — Who Handles It?

13 min

Students name what handles the message at each step.

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Pick a step.
  • Say which computer handles it.
  • Say what it does there.

🎒 Student Actions

  • Pick.
  • Say.
  • Say.
4

Create — My Email Map

15 min

Students diagram the journey.

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • Draw the sender and receiver.
  • Add the mail servers between them.
  • Trace the message's path with arrows.

🎒 Student Actions

  • Draw.
  • Add.
  • Trace.
5

Reflect — Across the Internet

5 min

Students reflect on how email travels.

👩‍🏫 Teacher Moves

  • What does a mail server do?
  • Why does an email not go straight to the other device?
  • Complete the exit ticket.

🎒 Student Actions

  • Say it.
  • Say it.
  • Complete the exit ticket.
Standards Alignment

Built to the standards you report on

Aligned to the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards and ISTE Standards for Students.

CSTA
2-NI-04

Model how information is broken down, sent, reassembled, and received across networks.

CSTA
2-NI-05

Explain how physical and digital security measures protect electronic information.

CSTA
2-CS-02

Design projects that combine hardware and software to collect and exchange data.

ISTE
1.5.c

Computational Thinker: break problems into parts and model how a system works.

Differentiation

One lesson, every learner

Multilingual Learners

ELL / EMERGING READERS
  • Step picture cards.
  • Sentence frame: “First ___ , then ___ .”
  • Order two steps at a time.

Support & Access

IEP / 504
  • Start with composing and sending.
  • Match each step to a computer.
  • Add one step at a time.

Stretch & Extend

GIFTED / EARLY FINISHERS
  • Add how the address finds the right server.
  • Compare email routing to sending a letter.
  • Explain where security fits into the path.
Materials

What to gather

  • 📽️Projector / board
  • 📧Email-step cards
  • 💻Order the Steps
  • 🌐A sender-to-server diagram
  • ✏️Pencils
  • 🎫Exit-ticket slips
Vocabulary

Key terms — hover for a quick definition

emaila message sent electronically from one person to anothermail servera computer that sends, routes, and stores emailinboxthe place where received email waits for yourouteto send data along a path across the internetsenderthe person or device that sends the messagerecipientthe person the message is sent toaddressthe email address that says where a message goesinternetthe global network that carries the message between servers
Evaluate

Exit Ticket

Preview the three formative checks. Tap “Sample answer” to see what mastery looks like — hide them before you print for students.

QUESTION 1
What does a mail server do?
It sends, routes, receives, and stores email, passing the message along until it reaches the right inbox.
QUESTION 2
Why does an email not go straight from your device to the other person's device?
It is handed to mail servers that route it across the internet and hold it until the recipient checks their inbox.
QUESTION 3
What is the first step after you write an email?
You press send, and your app hands the message to your mail server.

Create: my email map.

Have students draw the sender and receiver, add the mail servers between them, and trace the message's path with arrows, so the hidden journey becomes visible. A printable how-email-works worksheet is in the Computer Science library.

Study · Flashcards

Study the key terms

Tap a card to flip it, then rate whether you knew it. Built from this lesson’s vocabulary.

🃏 How Email Gets DeliveredFlip
Card 1
Term
Tap to flip →
Meaning
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Practice · Quiz

Check your understanding

A quick self-check with instant feedback, drawn from this lesson’s key terms.

📝 How Email Gets DeliveredQuiz
Score: 0
1 / 6
Question 1
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Practice · Worksheet

Printable worksheet

A print-and-go review sheet with a built-in answer key. Tap “Show answer key” to reveal answers, or print the clean version for students.

🖨️ How Email Gets DeliveredPrint
Name: ________________________
Date: ____________

Part A · Write the word that matches each meaning

Word bank: address, email, inbox, internet, mail server, recipient, route, sender
  1. to send data along a path across the internet
  2. the person or device that sends the message
  3. the email address that says where a message goes
  4. the global network that carries the message between servers
  5. the place where received email waits for you
  6. the person the message is sent to
  7. a message sent electronically from one person to another
  8. a computer that sends, routes, and stores email

Part B · Show what you learned

  1. What does a mail server do?
  2. Why does an email not go straight from your device to the other person's device?
  3. What is the first step after you write an email?
Answer key — Part A: 1) route · 2) sender · 3) address · 4) internet · 5) inbox · 6) recipient · 7) email · 8) mail server
Part B: 1) It sends, routes, receives, and stores email, passing the message along until it reaches the right inbox. 2) It is handed to mail servers that route it across the internet and hold it until the recipient checks their inbox. 3) You press send, and your app hands the message to your mail server.