This past weekend, I went to a socially-distanced masked crafting retreat with a handful of women. I haven’t been to a retreat in a long time, but in my pre-Covid life it was something I used to do frequently. I love to create mixed media art in art journals—and it’s fun to be artsy with…
The Mailbox® has five senses activities that are winter themed. This is actually a fun theme/topic combination because you can smell the hot chocolate, hear children playing in the snow, etc. But winter seems to have gone a little haywire recently, so my snarky brain imagines it more like this: I see snow drifts blocking…
I have a question, teacher friends! What would you tell a new teacher about The Mailbox®? What do you find most helpful? Do you really like certain types of activities or printables on our website? Are you over the moon about our booklets and morning work? Do you think the blogger is AMAZING? *cough* I…
If you’re a member of The Mailbox® Gold, you not only get access to our online library of thousands of ideas for your grade level, you also get new ideas every month through our online magazine. What is awesome about an online teacher magazine? Well, it means that I’m not bound by a certain number…
All teachers know that time filler activities are important forms of classroom management—and the key is to have these ideas ready to go when needed. Who knows when you’ll have to fill those empty minutes before lunch, or before a special, or when a lesson plan you thought was fabulous suddenly becomes distinctly non-fabulous. Hey,…
February 2 is Judith Viorst’s birthday. When I looked up information on this beloved author, I discovered that she’ll be turning 90 this year. (90!!) Then I looked up her most popular picture book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and discovered it was published the year I was born. I…
This Wednesday, January 27th, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a day to focus on the 6 million Jews and countless others who lost their lives due to the Holocaust. This is a topic I’ve been drawn to—and thus have read countless books on. I think it’s because I have difficulty wrapping my head around…
It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day—a day to commemorate the goals and achievements of this great man. It isn’t easy to teach about MLK at the elementary level without oversimplifying racial inequality (or going overboard so that the lesson goes over their heads). My favorite “lesson” about race wasn’t even a lesson I prepared at…
Living in an area of North Carolina that rarely gets snow means that when snow is forecast that news is pretty exciting! I’m originally from Michigan where snow in the forecast is greeted with a sigh, but I’ve lived down here long enough that I’ve adopted a very North Carolinian view of the weather. So…
We made it to 2021! 2020 was definitely an unusual, heartbreaking, and stressful year. But for me it was also punctuated by moments of beauty and kindness. I hope you felt those moments as well. That’s why I think it would be interesting to do this activity with your students: Sum up 2020 using a…