Can’t Wait to Try
Posted by Debra Liverman on 07 Aug 2008 | Posted in: Grade 1, Grades 2-3, Holiday and Seasonal, Intermediate, Kindergarten, Preschool, Student Activities, The Mailbox
I got an email from my son’s school this week with his list of needed school supplies for first grade. When I suggested we head out that evening to go shopping he said, “Mommy, can you go get them for me? I’ll just stay here.” I was shocked! How can anyone not get excited about picking out brand new school supplies? And then I realized, maybe it’s a teacher thing! Every teacher I know gets giddy over gathering new “stuff” for her classroom. And it’s not just the supplies, it’s the new ideas you can’t wait to try. Whether it’s a new bulletin board to display, a new homework system to implement, or a great game for getting acquainted during the first days of school, as teachers we just can’t wait to give them a try.
As you have been preparing for back to school, what ideas have you found in the August/September issues of The MAILBOX, TEACHER’S HELPER, or BOOKBAG that you are eager to implement in YOUR classroom? Some of my favorites are the back-to-school journal prompts (p. 57) in Grade 1 Teacher’s Helper, the activity cards (p. 16-17) in The Mailbox Intermediate, the Dinosaurs Before Dark book unit (p. 16-17) in Bookbag, and this idea from The Mailbox Grades 2-3 (p. 58).
Awesome Apples
On Back-to-School Night, have each parent or guardian write a note to his child on an apple cutout and then tape it to a tree display. The next morning, students pick their apples from the tree and read the words of praise and encouragement. –Rosemarie, Harrington Park Elementary
I’ll be looking forward to reading about which ideas you just can’t wait to try!
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i need help fpr lesson plan on pirates.. I am a day care teacher of a group of 4-5 yrs old.. It is my firstr time for this theme
thanks for the help…
Ditto to the teachers who want to have access to prior issues beyond one year. I am constantly loaning units,
ideas, and issues of Mailbox to colleagues in need or
who are struggling. The magazines don’t always make their way back to me! Being able to retrieve back issues would sure make me less stingy with my current issues.:)
I teach transitional K and we use our sensory table everyday.
1. Large frozen ice chunks w/ liquid watercolors and eyedroppers
2 Bird seed w/ spoons, cups etc..
3.pinto beans
4. soil w/ earthworms
5.colored rice
6 coffee sand
7 chicken feed ( my favorite)
8 water w/ fish nets and shells and plastic fish
9 clean mud (ivory soap and tissue)
10 we also put k-nex and legos inside
hope this gets you off to good start!
Hi, All. I appreciate the great response to this blog posting. Many of you have expressed an interest in gaining access to old Companion pages. I wanted you to know that I have passed your suggestions on to our Editorial Director. Thanks for your loyalty to The Mailbox.
Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas for things to do in a sensory table with preschoolers!
Thanks
I have subscribed to Mailbox Magazine for over 10 years and still am excited as each issue comes in the mail. I do wish we could access issues that are beyond a year old since I don’t always have time to download all of the ideas each month. It’s good to know others feel the same way. Well….Can something be done about that??????
I love having the internet access to Mailbox! My only complaint is I wish you could store more than one year of back issues. Sometimes when I am looking through old issues I would like to print something, but it is not available!
I love the ability to go to back issues and find ideas. I use Mailbox Magazine constantly for our weekday education program. As a matter of fact, a school teacher friend of mine told me about the magazine in 2000 and I am on my 8th year. You guys do awesome work!!!!
Get acquainted night for PreK-Adapting the apple idea….
This year my back to school theme is ‘Preschool is more Fun than a Barrel of Monkeys’. I am using the monkey pattern from Aug-Sept ‘08 and adding a banana. I will save these and add them to their “All About Me’ pages as a keepsake.
I am a senior at Stephen F. Austin State University, and I am about to start my internship for elementary education.
This apple note idea is such a wonderful idea! I think it will really help students who might be scared coming into a new classroom for the first time.
This is an idea that I will definitely keep in mind when I have my own class.
I would also love to be able to retrieve old mailbox issue ideas from the website. I know you can retrieve 1 year back but, it would be great to go furture back then that.
Thanks
I also like the apple idea, but I think I will leave it for open house. I love the monkey reproducible online, “swinging into 2nd grade”. I usually have the kids do an intro. writing/ coloring activity on the first day. Sometimes they’re so nervous they get “stuck”.
I’m going to send the monkey hand out in the mail with my welcome letter, and ask each child to color/design it, and add a few sentences about what they want to learn in second grade on the belly.
Hopefully, all will come in on the first day, ready to display.
I really loved “Fall is here” Writing idea in the grades 2-3 issue. I think that having the students write a simple piece for each season is a fantastic and easy way to document their growth over the course of the year. I can’t wait to see how far my students grow this year in writing workshop, and I’m planning to use the “Seasons” writing pieces to really document their growing skills! Thanks for a great idea!!
I love the apple note idea. I teach Kindergarten and our “1st day of school” consists of parents coming in with their children for about an hour. While I’m doing our whole group on the floor with the kids and playing an intro game, I’ll have parents write a note to their child and then save them for the kids real first day of school. It’s great for the kids to look forward to that special note from mom or dad and it helps to ease the 1st day jitters.
Oh, Vicky, I could not agree with you more! How wonderful would it be if we could retrieve ideas from any of the great back issues!! I would also love to be able to save text that I have added on the planning pages.
I too love all of the fantastic ideas that I get from the Mailbox magazine and use the Mailbox companion at least 3 days each week. I have to agree with Debbie Grimaldi. PLEASE HELP US SPECIAL ED TEACHERS! I also span 4-5 grade levels in my class each year and it is just impossible to subscribe to all of the magazines across the grade levels we service. I am excited to use several of the new ideas presented in the back to school issue!
I love The Mailbox PreK…in fact, if anything gives me back-to-school anxiety it comes from the fact I don’t have enough time to implement EVERYTHING I see!
Between the current issue of the magazine, my library of The Mailbox books, and all the interactive “stuff,” I’m overloaded with too many great ideas!!
I just find myself thanking Mailbox everyday for its amazing ideas and activities. I really have loved the new issues coming out recently. They are just spectacular and definitely get me excited about going back in the fall.
I plan on using the Apple idea from above, writing prompts list, and language arts brain boosters. I LOVE the booster pages the most. I used to use the free-time calendars from Mailbox Companion, but they did not always relate to my subject area (reading). I am going to use the brain boosters this year instead. The kids will receive colored copies and keep them in the front of their binders for free time work.
Thank you Mailbox!!!!
When you are in the bonus/extender pages–look in the upper left corner. There is a pull down menu under Magazine Extenders. All of the reproducibles are there from the past year.
As Debbie mentioned, I also teach various grades: K-3. I cannot afford to buy all the levels. It would be great if I could access them online.
I am new to Mailbox and LOVE my first issues and all of the xtras. I even made a special file box to save the ideas that I am going to use. I have had one dissappoinment…thought there would be something for the olympics…:@(
I agree that it would be nice if the extras were left on longer. One of my favorite parts of the magazine is Storytime. I teach a Kindergarten Prep Class and it is nice to have suggestions for extending a book throughout the morning. My class this year loved the ideas that I got from “Chanting with Books” (August September 07). Thanks for such a great magazine.
I can’t tell you how many wonderful ideas I get from The Mailbox Magazine. It seems like whenever I get a complement about an activity or bulletin board, it is something I found in the magazine. What a valuable resource!
Thank you, thank you for this wonderful service! I could not do without my Mailbox Magazine and Companion items! I LOVE all the ideas and reproducibles as well. However, I do have one “complaint”. I am a special education teacher (Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing) and often have multiple levels in my classroom. They may range from Prekindergarten all the up to 5th grade at times. I am not able to afford to buy all the various grade levels of Mailbox, although I wish I could!! Is there a way at all to get access to the various levels at least online? It would be wonderfully helpful to me, my teaching paraprofessionals and my students! Have a great year to all!
I love the Mailbox and use it all the time! I read it from cover to cover each month when it comes! I use most of the ideas…sometimes I pull the skill pages out for review! Keep up the good work!
I am very excited about the Froggy Goes to School unit in the Mailbox as well as the Wimberly Worried unit in Teachers Helper. I usually do a Kevin Henkes author study at the first of the year. I was thrilled to find out that there will now be a separate first grade mailbox. I think this has been very needed and I can’t wait to see what is going to be in my next issue!
I truly enjoy receiving the Mailbox magazine with all their ideas. It saves time searching and brainstorming for projects for the holidays, special events, and classroom academics. It has been a lifesaver for our Summer Camp Program. You have been a blessing at the right time.
I also love the mailbox magazine. The one thing I miss is when I am downloading each section it would change color then if I left my computer I knew where I left off at. Plus I agree with Vicki, I wish the reproducibles were left on longer. I dont have enough space to print each month and keep them with each of the magazines. Especially 8 years worth. Keep up the good work Mailbox!!!
The apples in the tree idea is cute to go with a back-to-school theme. I have a similar idea. I copy a preprinted piece of stationary, making it 2 to a page to save paper. I use zoo animals because I have a zoo theme at the beginning of the year.
At our parent orientation night, I ask the parents to jot a note to their child and leave it for them to find at/in their desk in the morning. The parents usually write a bit about being proud of their child, and remind them how much they are loved. Most kids later take their note home, but I have seen students who treasured their note and saved it in their desk for the entire school year. This is a great way to initiate some parent child communication.
I have been subscribing to the mailbox magazine for several years. I look forward to enhancing all the wonderful ideas in my classroom.
I really love the mailbox magazine and all the ideas. I just wish that the website reproducibles would be left on longer or that there was a way to go back and retrieve some of the back issues.