How to Make a Valentine's Day Mailbox for the Writing Center

Last Updated on January 28, 2024 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Turn a cardboard box into a Valentine’s Day mailbox and add it to your writing center! This is a fun way to work on fine motor skills while sending cards to friends and family.

One of our favorite things to do during our Valentine’s Day theme is making cards for each other.

It ties in nicely with The Kindness Elves activities we do during the month of February. We talk about being a good friend and doing kind things for each other.

Since our writing center turns into a Valentine’s station during the first 2 weeks of February, I decided we needed a classroom mailbox.

The children helped paint and decorate a box which then was placed in our writing center along with our love notes (scroll down to find the free printable) and other writing materials.

What fun it was to mail notes to each other and send home Valentines to our families!

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CLICK HERE to see our classroom in action during our Valentine’s Day theme!

How to Make a Valentine’s Day Mailbox for the Writing Center

Making a mailbox for your writing center is super easy and fun when you get your students involved.

Over the weekend I found an abandoned cardboard box (with a lid – score!) that I knew would be perfect for this project.

A shoebox would have worked well, too.

I gathered paint, glue, and foam hearts and invited the children to decorate what would soon be our classroom Valentine’s Day mailbox.

Let me show you how!

Supplies needed to make the Valentine’s Day mailbox:

Card board box with lid (the size of a shoebox)
Red or pink paint
Foam hearts
White glue

This is also a great activity to use up some of your Valentine’s scraps: buttons, ribbon, confetti … whatever your students would like to add!

Start Painting

Pour paint into small containers and start painting the box.

3-dimensional painting is always fun (and a great challenge) for young children. They have to think about each side of whatever they are working on.

Add Some Glue

Once the paint has been applied to the box, it’s time to add the glue.

You can simply pour glue into containers and add brushes.

However, I personally love to give the children squeeze bottles because it’s an extra step in strengthening fine motor skills.

To be more economical, I refill the small bottles from a gallon sized jug.

Smaller hands have to work a lot harder to squeeze the glue from the container, so usually it doesn’t flow very quickly.

However, you will want to keep an eye on it and if big puddles start forming, encourage them to move the bottles around to get glue on other areas of the box.