Happy Friday, y’all! How about we “eeee-ze” on into summer with an “eeee-zy” first Friday giveaway? Simply answer one “eeee-zy” question, and you’ll be entered to win a set* of ten grade-specific eUnits from The Mailbox! “Wow-ee”! That’s nearly a $25 prize! Except for our eUnits for preschool, our eUnits are aligned to Common Core…
Common Core State Standards
Giveaway Winner and More!
Drum roll please! This morning, I used the true number generator at Random.org to determine the winner of this month’s First Friday Giveaway. And the winning number is…18! Congratulations, Darlene! I’m still marveling over the fun assortment of facts that were collected at this blog post. Really great stuff! Tomorrow, April 22, is the 34th…
Make An Editor’s Day!
Are your ears burning? If they’re not, they should be! You know how the saying goes; if your ears burn someone is talkin’ about ya. And I’m here to report that you are being talked about in a really, really great way! You see the editors here at The Mailbox know you have the very…
Time for Your Regular Checkup
“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.” ― Abraham Harold Maslow You may be familiar with Mr. Maslow. He has a Hierarchy of Needs named for him. However, this is not what I’m concerned with today. You have tests to administer and a curriculum to…
Poor Pluto
It’s not easy being a planet. For one thing, unless you’re Earth, it’s pretty lonely out there in the solar system. Sure, Mars is getting all the attention these days with some incredibly impressive visitors. But as red-hot as Mercury is, there’s not much going on. Saturn’s got rings, but no medals or awards. And…
Are You Blinding Them with Science?
Life’s a funny thing. When we asked our Facebook followers when they knew they wanted to be teachers, an astonishing number responded that they knew quite early, when they were young children. When I was a young child, I wanted to be a firefighter, mainly because of my love for dalmatians. I’ve wanted to be…
Happy Birthday, John Hancock
Here we go again. Todd’s going to write about handwriting. How long has it been since he last did that? A week? A month? But I have a reason! Is it a good one? Of course. I wouldn’t dream of wasting your time. Exactly one week from today is John Hancock’s birthday. He of the…
No Prep? Yes, Please!
When I taught, I used to get bogged down with lesson planning and prep. I have a sneaking suspicion that you feel the same. I taught young fives and kindergarten, and I spent countless hours cutting out patterns, preparing visuals, and differentiating instruction for those who needed it. I did a lot of sitting on…
A Frosty “Mathcraft”
No time for arts and crafts? Then plan a “mathcraft”! For each student, cut a circle and a hexagon from white paper; then cut each circle in half and each hexagon into a rectangle and two triangles. Choose a Common Core skill from below to incorporate during the formation of Frosty. Look at Frosty now!…
Top 5 Things I’d Like to Note from 2013
2013. Just when it was getting interesting—with a surprise Beyonce album, an actual bipartisan budget deal in Washington, DC, and a Boston Red Sox World Series celebration duck boat parade—it’s time to turn the calendar over to 2014.* Here’s a look back at some of the highlights from The Mailbox in 2013. The Mailbox turned…