I came across a post of mini mailboxes to hold 2 Hershey Nuggets and I thought they would make a cute little Valentine’s Day treat for my homeroom of 26 6th graders. But then, I felt bad that I wouldn’t be giving something to the other kids on the team, so I decided to include them all.
Clearly, I didn’t think this through…
I started early enough a couple of weeks ago, printing and cutting out by hand 100 T shapes for the mailboxes. When I was just about finished, a coworker asked why I didn’t use my Silhouette. 
Then, I had to round the corners. That was 400 corners punched. I became ambidextrous halfway through to avoid a massive blister.
I cut 108 rectangles for the mailbox flags, and again, I don’t know why I didn’t use my Silhouette… My coworker offered to help, so she cut them into the flag shape and applied the stickers.
At some point, in a brief moment of unexpected clarity, I realized that most of these would probably get tossed in the trash soon after they were received and emptied of treats, so I decided NOT to attach the flags with the little brads that I had purchased.
Now, you may have noticed that the mini mailboxes don’t actually seem to contain Hershey’s nuggets. Because, in addition to not thinking about how much more work it would be to scale up to 100 mailboxes, I didn’t think about how much it would cost to purchase 200 nuggets (over $100!!!).
Enter the Jolly Ranchers… which would not stay in the mailboxes using double sided tape, and the back flap of the mailbox wouldn’t stay stuck to the wrappers.
I ended up using hot glue to hold everything together, which worked great!
I was surprised at how much the kids appreciated them and how excited they were to find out which flavors of Jolly Ranchers they got. I was also surprised that they didn’t want to tear the mailboxes open to get the candy out because of the hot glue. Many of them figured out a way to do it without damaging them, and passed the knowledge around the classroom.
And, even though I was up until midnight and awake at five, and had to manage sugar-loaded and vacation-excited 6th graders while trying to complete 2 mini experiments in class, I deem it a success!
But, I think next year I might go back to buying Valentine’s Day pencils from the Dollar Tree.
And, here are the 100 completed mailboxes, all packed up for school!
