O'Block Books
Your one stop shop for early childhood teaching supplies and materials.

™             Free shipping on orders $39.95 & over! In stock orders ship w/in 24 hours!

The Mailbox Magazines: The Idea Magazine for Teachers
Current issues available: June/July 2009 and August/September 2009

Preschool
Kindergarten
Grade 1
Grades 2 -3
Intermediate

See also:
Best of the Mailbox Magazine Series of Teaching Books

Free Shipping Promotion: All orders $39.95 and over receive free parcel post shipping (within the contiguous United States). In stock orders ship within 24 hours.

In order to view some of the Sample Pages you need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader, click the button below:

The Mailbox Magazine: June / July 2009

Grade Level: Preschool
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2041043

Give them a great start! It's easy with The Mailbox Magazine!

The Mailbox magazine brings you the best ideas, activities, and tips in preschools today.

• Early literacy units for letters and sounds
• Early sorting and counting activities to capture their imaginations
• Movement-related songs, rhymes, and activities just for preschoolers
• Exploration-based centers to combine developmentally appropriate skills with play
• Ready-to-go patterns, forms, and activity cards to make the ideas easy to use

Special features in this issue include:

• Pirates and Treasure Themed ideas - developing phonological awareness, making sets, developing fine-motor and gross motor skills, counting, predicting book events, writing letter x, following directions, exploring emotions, writing
• Activities for A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni - making a personal connection, identifying and matching colors, writing, matching, responding to the book through art
• Ideas for Die-Cuts - Whether you have a die-cut machine at your disposal or you use store-bought cutouts, these activities are sure to be simple and useful!
• Let's Investigate Rocks - comparing, sorting, developing print concepts, making real-life connections, exploring the earth, forming letter R
• Bubbling Over with Literacy Ideas! - writing letters, matching letters, identifying letters, beginning sounds, writing, speaking, rhyming
• Beach Centers - math center, health and safety center, fine-motor area, gross-motor area, literacy center
• A Great Math Getaway! - making sets, patterning, developing preaddition and presubtraction skills, identifying colors, visual discrimination, identifying shapes, comparing sets, recognizing numbers, nonstandard measurement, ordering numbers
• Ready-To-Use Activity - Identifying Numbers, Making Sets

In every issue:

• Learning Centers
• Classroom Displays
• Contributor Form
• Science Explorations
• Songs & Such
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Arts & Crafts for Little Hands
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Storytime
• It's Circle Time
• Busy Hands
• Our Readers Write

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

The Mailbox Magazine: August / September 2009

Grade Level: Preschool
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2041044

Give them a great start! It's easy with The Mailbox Magazine!

The Mailbox magazine brings you the best ideas, activities, and tips in preschools today.

• Early literacy units for letters and sounds
• Early sorting and counting activities to capture their imaginations
• Movement-related songs, rhymes, and activities just for preschoolers
• Exploration-based centers to combine developmentally appropriate skills with play
• Ready-to-go patterns, forms, and activity cards to make the ideas easy to use

Special features in this issue include:

• Start Your Engines! It's Time for Preschool! - school tour, circle time activity, job display, cubby tags/nametags, responding to a book through art, song, getting acquainted, snack, display, sand table
• Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes - Developing interest in the story, responding to a story through art, participating in a story, writing, identifying beginning sound /m/,
• Documenting Student Progress - using sticky labels to record observations, parent packets, skill tubs, students' name-writing progress on sign-in sheets
• A Bushel of Print and Book Awareness - understanding that print has meaning, expressing an opinion about a book, reading environmental print, speaking to ask questions about a book, identifying the title, author, and illustrator, tracking print from left to right
• My Classmates and Me Centers - Youngsters celebrate themselves and their classmates with this nifty selection of center ideas just perfect for the beginning of the school year.
• Splendid Science Booklets - "What's Under My Feet?", "Up in the Sky", "Weather Through the Seasons", "My Five Senses"
• Ready-To-Use Activity - Identifying Colors

In every issue:

• Learning Centers
• Classroom Displays
• Contributor Page
• Science Explorations
• Songs & Such
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Arts & Crafts
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Storytime
• It's Circle Time
• Busy Hands
• Our Readers Write

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

NEW! Kindergarten Mailbox Magazine (2 issues available: June/July and August/September)

The Mailbox Magazine: June/July 2009

Grade Level: Kindergarten
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2042043

You'll see real results every day. Grab their attention with ready-to-go ideas and activities that deliver on your curriculum.

With The Mailbox Magazine you'll get:

• Fresh reading activities to build basic skills
• Math skill-building activities designed to meet and beat your state's standards
• Easy-to-use arts and crafts and classroom display ideas
• Ready-to-go posters, forms, patterns, and activity cards
• A new skill index that lets you find what you need fast

Special units in this issue:

Literacy

• Cool Letter Review - Alphabet Mats, Phonics Flowerpots, The ABCs of Kindergarten, Name that Letter!, What's Missing?
• Sorting Activity - hearing middle sounds
• Building Reading Skills - phonological awareness, main characters, word families, reading environmental print, high-frequency words
• Writing Helpers - journal prompts, word bank, sentence starter cards, graphic organizer

Literature

• The Book Corner - Activities to supplement the following literature selections: Arthur's Pet Business by Marc Brown, A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle.
• In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming - writing, ordering by height, rhyming

Math

• Building Math Skills - counting by tens, subtraction to ten, graphing
• Reproducible Math Games - addition to five, subtraction to five
• Hands-On Addition -beginning addition, ways to make ten, addition to 12, writing addition sentences

Science and Social Studies

• Simple Science - investigating sound, investigating living things
• Let's Do Social Studies - recognizing ways to protect Earth's resources, exposure to maps, goods and services

Seasonal

• Seasonal Skill Practice: Bugs - phonological awareness, parts of an insect, nonstandard measurement, addition, number words, letters, action words
• 'Tis the Season - At the Beach, A Perfect Picnic, Home-Run Addition
• Seasonal Lotto - subtraction or -en and -et words

Ready-to-Use Teacher Tools

• Gameboards - "Cool Deal" (high-frequency words) and "Showtime" (solid figures)
• Center Mat and Cards - "Happy Campers" (sequencing)

In every issue:

• Classroom Displays
• Arts & Crafts
• Learning Centers (Literacy and Math, addition combinations to 10)
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Skills in Your Issue
• What Works for You? - "End of the School Year"
• Our Readers Write

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

The Mailbox Magazine: August / September 2009

Grade Level: Kindergarten
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2042044

You'll see real results every day. Grab their attention with ready-to-go ideas and activities that deliver on your curriculum.

With The Mailbox Magazine you'll get:

• Fresh reading activities to build basic skills
• Math skill-building activities designed to meet and beat your state's standards
• Easy-to-use arts and crafts and classroom display ideas
• Ready-to-go posters, forms, patterns, and activity cards
• A new skill index that lets you find what you need fast

Special units in this issue:

Literacy

• From A to Z (part one) - Kick off your school year with these alphabet activities! You will find the letters A through M in this issue; then look for the letters N through Z in your Oct/Nov issue.
• Building Reading Skills - letter-sound associations, concepts of print, beginning letters, environmental print, high-frequency words, rhyming
• "Bear-y" Fun for Young Writers! - Give fine-motor skills an entertaining twist with this version of the traditional "Going on a Bear Hunt" story.

Literature

• The Book Corner - Activities to supplement the following literature selections: Lunch by Denise Fleming, The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
• Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate- writing, matching letters, identifying rhyming words

Math

• Building Math Skills - calendar skills, number recognition, counting, making and identifying shapes
• Reproducible Math Games - counting, plane figures
• Ideas You Can Count On! - making sets to ten, identifying numbers to ten, counting, one-to-one correspondence, sorting, ordering numbers, modeling numbers

Science and Social Studies

• Simple Science - sink and float, sense of touch
• Let's Do Social Studies - recognizing good citizenship, identifying community helpers, celebrating Constitution Day

Seasonal

• Treasured Back-to-School Ideas - name display, school tour, snack, name recognition, writing, matching shapes, making a keepsake
• 'Tis the Season - How Many Seeds? (comparing sets), All About Me (poster), Bushels of Sounds (letter sounds)
• Seasonal Lotto - counting and shapes or rhyming

Ready-to-Use Teacher Tools

• Posters - Compare! and We Can Read!
• Center Mat - Beavers' Lodge (rhyming)
• Step-by-Step Center Activity - concepts about print

In every issue:

• Classroom Displays
• Arts & Crafts
• Learning Centers - Literacy and Math
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Skills in Your Issue
• What Works for You? - "Open House"
• Our Readers Write

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

NEW! First Grade Mailbox Magazine (2 issues available: June/July and August/September)

The Mailbox Magazine: June/July 2009

Grade Level: First Grade
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2040043

You'll see real results every day. Grab their attention with ready-to-go ideas and activities that deliver on your curriculum.

With The Mailbox Magazine you'll get:

• Fresh reading activities to build basic skills
• Math skill-building activities designed to meet and beat your state's standards
• Easy-to-use arts and crafts and classroom display ideas
• Ready-to-go posters, forms, patterns, and activity cards
• A new skill index that lets you find what you need fast

Special units in this issue:

Learning Centers

• Literacy and Math
• Center Mat and Cards - antonyms and synonyms
• Step-by-Step Center Activity - making words

Literacy

• Skills for Young Readers - skill review, long e: ea, ee, vocabulary, antonyms or synonyms, ar words
• Word Sort - ar, ir, or
• Read and Do!
• Comprehension Gems - beginning, middle, and end of a story, asking and answering questions, story elements, main idea
• Write On! - On Topic booklet, how-to writing, colorful word bank

Literature

• The Book Corner - Activities to supplement the following literature selections: Junie B., First Grader: One-Man Band by Barbara Park, Wild About Books by Judy Sierra, The Secret Shortcut by Mark Teague, and Mr Putter and Tabby Row the Boat by Cynthia Rylant.

Math

• Building Math Skills - collecting and recording data, counting coins, linear measurement
• Reproducible Math Games - place value, addition with three addends
• Math Picnic - place value, addition with three addends, number sentences with unknown numbers, story problems, telling time
• Year-End Math Event - Looking for a way to spice up the end of the school year? Try these centers one day for an extra special math time!

Science and Social Studies

• Simple Science - knowing parts of insects, understanding evaporation
• Let's Do Social Studies - geography, patriotic symbol

Seasonal

• Seasonal Activity Cards - counting coins, problem solving, describing words, writing, skip-counting, place value, homophones, words with ar
• 'Tis the Season - Beach Ball Blast (spelling), Buggy Probability, Step Into Summer (writing prompt)

Ready-to-Use Teacher Tools

• Posters - "When You Read" and "Problem Solving"
• Writing Center Word Bank - Feeling Words

In every issue:

• Classroom Displays
• Arts & Crafts
• Read and Do!
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Skills in Your Issue
• What Works for You? "The End of the School Year "
• Our Readers Write

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

The Mailbox Magazine: August / September 2009

Grade Level: First Grade
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2040044

You'll see real results every day. Grab their attention with ready-to-go ideas and activities that deliver on your curriculum.

With The Mailbox Magazine you'll get:

• Fresh reading activities to build basic skills
• Math skill-building activities designed to meet and beat your state's standards
• Easy-to-use arts and crafts and classroom display ideas
• Ready-to-go posters, forms, patterns, and activity cards
• A new skill index that lets you find what you need fast

Special units in this issue:

Literacy

• Skills for Young Readers - rhyming, letter knowledge, letter-sound associations, changing initial consonants, making predictions, -at words
• Read and Do!
• Picture Sort: phonological awareness
• Focused on High-Frequency Words -recognizing words, identifying words, using words in sentences, reading in context, reading, spelling
• Write On! - writing sentences, writing topics, colorful word bank

Literature

• The Book Corner - Activities to supplement the following literature selections: Brand-New Pencils, Brand-New Books by Diane deGroat, First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg, How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague, Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook by Michael Garland

Math

• Building Math Skills - number sense, patterning, graphing, addition
• Reproducible Math Games - concept of addition, comparing numbers
• Making Subtraction as Easy as Pie - subtraction to 8, subtraction to 10, subtracting to compare, subtracting to find the difference

Science and Social Studies

• Simple Science - sorting by animal characteristics, sinking and floating
• Let's Do Social Studies - Constitution Day, families, community workers

Seasonal

• Welcome Back! - writing, citizenship, identifying one's own interests, phonological awareness, comparing sets, speaking in a group
• 'Tis the Season - Don't Pick Green! (counting, skip-counting), Guess the Rule! (sorting), "A-peel-ing" Poetry (color words, rhyming, high-frequency words, comprehension)
• Seasonal Activity Cards - patterning, number sense, rhyming, letter-sound associations, problem-solving, concept of addition, high-frequency words, writing labels

Ready-to-Use Teacher Tools

• Posters- Short Vowels and Skip-Counting
• Center Mat and Cards - addition to ten
• Step-by-step center activity: labeling pictures

In every issue:

• Classroom Displays
• Arts & Crafts
• Learning Centers - Literacy and Math
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Skills in Your Issue
• What Works for You? "Classroom Displays"
• Our Readers Write
• Contributor Form

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

Grades 2 - 3 Mailbox Magazine (2 issues available: June/July and August/September)

The Mailbox Magazine: June/July 2009

Grade Level: Second - Third Grade
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2043043

You'll see real results every day. Grab their attention with ready-to-go ideas and activities that deliver on your curriculum.

With The Mailbox Magazine you'll get:

• Graphing and measurement activities for building math skills
• All new standards-based activities for language skills and paragraph writing
• Ready-to-go patterns, forms, and activity cards
• Bright, colorful, perforated curriculum posters for class instruction
• A new skill index that lets you find what you need fast

Special units in this issue:

Language Arts

• Writing & Grammar - paragraph organization, capitalization, compound subjects and predicates, motivation, imaginary narrative, quotation marks, writing prompts
• Reading - fluency, contractions, high-frequency words, independent reading, literary genres, make, revise, and confirm predictions, comparing story elements, point of view, setting
• Practice Pages - graphic organizer, supporting details, phonics: oi and oy, suffixes: -ful and -less, short report, identifying adjectives, simple and compound sentences

Math

• Math Mailbag - slides, flips, and turns, number sense, input/output tables, year-end review, capacity, graphs, range, math prompts
• Practice Pages - weight and volume, problem solving, logical reasoning, working backward

Social Studies and Science

• Exploring Social Studies - time and change, map skills, state community
• Social Studies Comprehension Page - economics
• Simply Science - habitats, solar energy, observations, science journals
• Science Comprehension Page - plant and animal interdependence

Ready-To-Use Teacher Tools

• Posters - "Comparing Stories"
• Gameboard - "To the Lemonade Stand" (plural nouns) and "Capacity"

Multitopic

• Learning Centers - synonyms, measuring with inches, alphabetizing, place value, similes and metaphors
• Celebrate the Season! - persuasive writing, multiplication readiness, writing couplets, elapsed time, reviewing parts of speech
• Practice Pages - guide words real-life math
  

In every issue:

• Classroom Displays
• Arts & Crafts
• Skills in Your Issue
• What Works for You?
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Our Readers Write
• Answer Keys
• Contributor Form

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

The Mailbox Magazine: August / September 2009

Grade Level: Second - Third Grade
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2043044

You'll see real results every day. Grab their attention with ready-to-go ideas and activities that deliver on your curriculum.

With The Mailbox Magazine you'll get:

• Graphing and measurement activities for building math skills
• All new standards-based activities for language skills and paragraph writing
• Ready-to-go patterns, forms, and activity cards
• Bright, colorful, perforated curriculum posters for class instruction
• A new skill index that lets you find what you need fast

Special units in this issue:

Language Arts

• Writing & Grammar - prewriting, plural nouns, types of sentences, rough drafts, journal writing, complete and incomplete sentences, year-long project, writing prompts
• Writing organizer: descriptive writing
• Reading - high frequency words, compound words, base words and inflectional endings, predictions, point of view, theme, comprehension strategies, summarize
• Reproducible booklet: reading questions
• Practice Pages - sounds of y, words with ph, author's purpose, capitalization: people and places, nouns and verbs

Math

• Math Mailbag - plane shapes, number words, basic facts, rounding, skip-counting, problem solving, skills practice, math prompts
• Ready-to-use center: number words
• Practice Pages - fact families, place value, ordering numbers

Social Studies and Science

• Exploring Social Studies - map skills, time and change
• Social Studies Comprehension Page - good citizens
• Simply Science - parts of a plant, simple machines, process skills
• Science Comprehension Page - soil

Ready-To-Use Teacher Tools

• Gameboards - "To the Tree House" (sight words) and "Place Value Planet "

Multitopic

• Learning Centers - addition skills, spelling, word problems, writing, alphabetizing skills
• Celebrate the Season! - writing and answering questions, following directions, making a glyph, capitalization, punctuation, and word usage, letter writing, brainstorming, vocabulary
• Practice Pages - addition and subtraction with regrouping, identifying subjects, interpreting data, cardinal directions
  

In every issue:

• Classroom Displays
• Arts & Crafts
• Skills in Your Issue
• What Works for You?
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Our Readers Write
• Answer Keys
• Contributor Form

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

Intermediate Mailbox Magazine (2 issues available: June/July and August/September)

The Mailbox Magazine: June/July 2009

Grade Level: Intermediate (Fourth - Sixth Grade)
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2044043

You'll see real results every day. Grab their attention with ready-to-go ideas and activities that deliver on your curriculum.

With The Mailbox Magazine you'll get:

• Easy-to-use activities for math skills including fractions and measurement
• Standards-based activities for sentence skills and reference materials
• Ready-to-go forms, patterns, and activity cards
• Bright, colorful, perforated curriculum posters for class instruction
• A new skill index that lets you find what you need fast

Special units in this issue:

Language Arts

• Tips & Tools - reviewing less common punctuation, parts of speech, irregular verbs, summarizing, anagrams
• Reading Graphic Organizer
• Practice Pages - vocabulary, prepositional phrases
• Reproducible Partner Game - synonyms and antonyms
• Write Now! - prewriting, researching and writing a report, narrative writing, book report, persuasive writing, organizing research
• Writing Graphic Organizer
• Poster Practice Page - similes and metaphors
• Language Arts Brain Boosters

Math

• Math Mind Builders and Tips and Tools
• Math Prompts
• Poster Practice Page - math formulas
• Practice Page - number patterns
• Activity Cards - elapsed time, adding fractions, averages, problem solving, symmetry, probability, exponents, prime factorization

Science and Social Studies

• Simply Science - temperature, conducting an experiment, nervous system, forms of energy
• Science Comprehension Pages - Temperature Ups and Downs experiment, mirages, animal survival
• Exploring Social Studies - economics vocabulary, current events, author's purpose, historical figures
• Social Studies Comprehension Page - Declaration of Independence

Ready-To-Use Teacher Tools

• Genre Identification Game Mat and Cards and math activity cards

Seasonal

• Monthly Writing Prompts
• Skills for the Season - end of school, probability, research, narrative writing
• Practice Pages - area and perimeter, prefixes, suffixes, and base words, critical thinking, symmetry

In every issue:

• Skills in Your Issue
• Classroom Displays
• What Works for You?
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Our Readers Write
• Answer Keys
• Contributor Form

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books

The Mailbox Magazine: August / September 2009

Grade Level: Intermediate (Fourth - Sixth Grade)
Price: $5.95
Product #: 2044044

You'll see real results every day. Grab their attention with ready-to-go ideas and activities that deliver on your curriculum.

With The Mailbox Magazine you'll get:

• Easy-to-use activities for math skills including fractions and measurement
• Standards-based activities for sentence skills and reference materials
• Ready-to-go forms, patterns, and activity cards
• Bright, colorful, perforated curriculum posters for class instruction
• A new skill index that lets you find what you need fast

Special units in this issue:

Language Arts

• Activity Cards - contractions, abbreviations, word skills, simple and compound sentences, prewriting, main idea and supporting details, identifying genre, comparing and contrasting
• Reading Graphic Organizer - making predictions
• Practice Page - context clues, common and proper nouns
• Write Now! - comparing and contrasting, managing student writing, writing a descriptive paragraph, writing strong paragraphs
• Writing Graphic Organizer - how-to writing
• Language Arts Brain Boosters
• Tips & Tools - sequencing, capitalization, main idea, conventions, spelling, vocabulary

Math

• Math Mind Builders
• Poster Practice Page - roman numerals
• Tips and Tools - using base ten blocks, reading and comparing whole numbers, number sense, multiplication, addition, reading, adding, and subtracting decimals
• Ready-to-Use Game - equivalent measurements
• Math Prompts
• Practice Pages - estimating sums and differences, reading and interpreting a double bar graph
• Reproducible Partner Game - rounding whole numbers

Science and Social Studies

• Simply Science - classifying vertebrates, igneous rocks, force, experiment
• Science Comprehension Pages - hurricanes, geothermal energy
• Exploring Social Studies - geography, Native Americans, exploration, research
• Social Studies Comprehension Page - Sequoyah

Seasonal

• Monthly Writing Prompts
• Skills for the Season - student motivation, branches of government, research skills, patriotism, creative writing, getting acquainted
• Practice Pages - place value to thousandths, possessive nouns and pronouns, homophones, ordering numbers

In every issue:

• Classroom Displays
• What Works for You?
• Management Tips & Timesavers
• Our Readers Write
• Answer Keys
• Contributor Form
• Skills in Your Issue

You may also like:
Our complete collection of The Best of The Mailbox Magazine series of books