Me-Boxes

One thing I remember from college that I have always used as a way for my students to learn about each other is Me-Boxes. Each year, I have students put together their Me-Boxes at the beginning of the year and we also use it as their memory boxes at the end of the year. I always ask parents to save their boxes because we reuse them again in May.

I always use this Me-Box as an low key presentation. In Kindergarten, I have my students do one presentation each month. We talk about the 4 P’s of presenting:

Projection

Posture

Preparation

Polite Participation

This is an example of one of the posters that we use when talking about presenting.

For Me-Boxes all I want for them to practice is looking at each other and listening to one another. It’s hard for students to sit and engage in conversation with another student when it has nothing to do with them. It’s hard for some adults to be good listeners! This is a great way to get kids talking and listening to one another.

Of course, you should model what this looks like before you just have them all grab their boxes and send them off to talk to one another. I have my own me-box that I use and show them. I sit on the carpet with another student and we face each other and I show the other student (while modeling), all of the items in my me-box. While I’m talking, I make a point to have the other student keep their me-box closed and look and listen while the other student is talking about the items in their box.

I have always loved doing this with my kids and it really could be used throughout all of the grades at the beginning of the year. If you want an editable parent letter, just click below and you can grab the note that I send home to my parents.