Hello, friends! Today I am going to give you a quick run down of thirty different ideas for using those cute little metal mailboxes that you can usually find for one dollar around this time of year! I saw a whole shelf full of these mailboxes in the dollar section at Target, and immediately began wondering how many teaching ideas there were out there for those things! So I snapped a picture and posted it on my HeidiSongs Facebook Page, opens in a new tab, along with the question below. Just LOOK at all of the responses! I think I counted 30 of them!
Have a wonderful day with your little students this year on Valentine’s Day!
QUICK! How many uses can you think of for a metal mailbox from the Target dollar section????
Christa Toulson, opens in a new tab – Valentine’s Day mailboxes, Post Office dramatic play center, student mailboxes for friends to leave notes in.
Lissie Aliotti Antos – A sight word mail game?
Cristina Chica-Munoz, opens in a new tab – Lots of math games..you can have kids deliver the matching number series or word… Deliver the letters to a word…. Kid’s mailboxes for letter writing… The possibilities are endless!
Katie McNamara, opens in a new tab – Put small magnetic letters inside and they could make words.
Patricia Reilly Moore, opens in a new tab – Maybe “mail a sound” activity where each mailbox has a particular card on the flag (i.e. “sh, ch, etc.”) and then heart-shaped cards with pictures on them (i.e. “fish, chin, etc.) that act as valentines to be mailed. The student would then place the valentines in the box.
Kristin Mockler Young – Put one on your desk for pictures & cards from students!
Anmarie Byrnes Galgano, opens in a new tab – Beginning sound box?
Anmarie Byrnes Galgano, opens in a new tab – Mail time math? Put a sum on the mailbox, then students sort math “facts” into the matching mailbox.
Janet Jenkins, opens in a new tab – Tattle box. Morning/afternoon mail. Mystery message. “Letter” of the day.
Kimberly Sanders-Booth, opens in a new tab – Valentine gift holder for my Daughter!
Karen Lamy Mangine, opens in a new tab – I bought one of these a few years ago and have used it ever since for calling children to small group focused instruction times. I started with using it only during writer’s workshop but have opened it up to other times too. This is how I use it. I have six cards printed up that say, “Come to small group with the teacher.” During independent writing time, I circulate and look for who needs help with the mini lesson focus of the day. These are the children who receive a card from me. They have been taught to come to me with their pencil, eraser, paper, and card. They place their card in the mailbox and get ready to work with me.
Merika Campbell, opens in a new tab – Token toss! Letters or math problem programmed on the inside of door. Stand on end, open door. Partner calls out letter word or number to aim for.
Catherine Bol, opens in a new tab – Math stations!!!
Jill Svoboda, opens in a new tab – Note to teacher and from teacher. Student box on desk. When flag is up at end of the day, teacher takes out a student note or drawing. When student returns the next morning, when flag is up, there is a response from the teacher. I also used them to place notes to the kids who needed extra encouragement or a pat on the back, even if there was no “note to teacher’ the day before. My students loved this. And I appreciated how ease and timely organization.(1st – 3rd grades.) Kinder could use drawings and simple words or phrases.)
Jill Svoboda, opens in a new tab – Writing Center. Students select a mail box and write about a picture, theme, or letter response. I often enclosed a word list and coded the boxes by level so that all students had an appropriate writing assignment.
PS: I was able to purchase a bunch of these little mail boxes for 50 cents years ago!
Kathy Hauch – I have used these for the last 4 years in my four year old class. They are located on a shelf by my writing center. My kids write notes to each other and put them in their friends mailbox. We get a workout with our fine motor skills not only writing the notes but from folding them to fit in the mailbox and putting up the flag to let the friend know they have mail. The kids love this center. They get so excited to have pictures from their friends.
Tina Lizotte Thomas, opens in a new tab – I bought several at the Central Massachusetts Target…thinking I’ll use it for their “caught being good raffle tickets” & another at the writing table to hold small notepads & mini pencils for kiddos to write notes during Feb.
Vanessa Levin – Here is an idea using these mailboxes I shared on my blog a few years ago: http://www.pre-kpages.com/valentine-syllables/ .
FYI, they’re not suitcase friendly. I used to travel with them for presentations and gave up after 3 got crushed flat.
Lois B. Jones – For writing center have children write a note or draw a picture for a nursing home or veterans hospital. Collect the finished product in the mailbox.
Amy Louise – Now I need to go buy more! So many great ideas!
HeidiSongs:, opens in a new tab – Great ideas! Keep them coming! How about a word family sorting game? You could put the name of the word family on the flag, and have the kids read the word and then deliver it to the mail box.
I hope you enjoyed this post! Don’t forget to enter our HeidiSongs Video Contest for a chance to win $300 in HeidiSongs products! Look here for the details and rules.
