Okay, now I'm looking for cheap ideas for mailboxes. All my other schools had sorters or mailboxes provided. Some ideas I thought: -hanging shoe caddy (except with cinderblock walls and a door that opens out, how would I hang it?)my favorite idea, if I could figure out how to hang it -stacking file trays (I have several, but I don't know how many kids I'll have) -a peer used cleaned up Pringle cans and hot glued them together (while I could eat several cans of Pringles before 7/21, I'd rather not ) Any other ideas???:thanks:
the stacking trays confuse the kids. Because you need to put a sticker with a name on the lip of the tray, (because putting it on the actual tray will be covered up as soon as one person puts something in to it), but does that mean the one above the sticker goes to that sticker, or the one below the sticker. I had that for each period and all the time had to resort, thus, not making it worth my time.
Shoe holders at Target. I don't know how to create a link, but it's on the storage and organizaton page, sub heading shoe storage. It's a rectanular box with lots of cubbie holes It's made of "wood" so it looks pretty sturdy.
I wanted a mailbox system for next year as well. I found two great literature organizers on yahoo's freecycle group for my area. It is a plastic one, so I'm certain it will hold up for my class. They stack together to give me 24 letter sized cubbies. I had researched this, but really couldn't afford even the cardboard ones. I tried freecycle and got a response the very same day. While doing some research on the internet for classroom mailing systems, I came across an idea to use cereal boxes taped together. You could always have students donate one empty cereal box each...of course you'd have to specify size. I would try to freecycle or use craigslist Eating all those pringles sounds like fun though
oh-and your custodian should be able to drill into the ciderblock wall if you really want to do the hanging shoe thing. I had mine put up hooks all over this year so I could hang various pocket charts. They just use a special drill bit.
I used Command adhesive strips & hooks to hang some of my pocket charts. One has 27 places and each one will hold something like 20 sheets of paper. It's holding up with 5 command strips. I've got another one that holds all my student responders, and it's holding up with three strips.
I could help with the Pringles... I just got a brand new shelf on sale 50% off at Staples that will work well for me...
What's it like? How many boxes? I normally have 28+ kids, but will (fingers crossed) have 22 or so this year-but I will need to get something big for when my class size inevitable gets large again.
lol trinda. I've had pretty good luck with the command strips and hooks for hanging heavy stuff. You might want to look into that before you do damage to your heart.
You can use hanging folders for each kid. I got a literature organizer with 24 sections in it for $39 from Office Max on clearance. Unfortunately, I don't see it there anymore.
It's got 36 boxes... it was still $100, and I think it was actually 70 dollars off, not 50%... but I'm still quite happy with it. It was a one day sale at Staples.ca though.
I got some at Sam's last year that worked out pretty well. I had to get two and I don't think it came to more than $25. I don't know if they'll have them there again this year or not.
How about this one. http://www.amazon.com/Organizer-Let...=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1214876710&sr=1-3
Man, I don't mean to hijack, sorry, but I tried to join freecycle after reading this post and I was denied! I'm so bummed, I don't get it
I love that one. I don't love the price I wish I had a start-up budget. I'll check to see if I'm allowed to use the adhesives or have holes drilled. I'm not optimistic.
Along the Pringles can idea ... I saw a teacher online that glued shoeboxes together to make a mailbox. You would just have to cut out one of the sides to make the opening. I'm not sure how sturdy it would be, but it seemed like a cheap way to go.
My membership has been pending for one of them in my area for over a month...I don't think I'm being accepted there. I even emailed the facilitators at yahoo complaining. What really irks me is that I have referred a bunch of teachers at my school to that same group and they were all accepted that day. I'm thinking about trying to sign up for one with a new yahoo identity. Luckily there are two in my area and the one accepted me right away
