I'm a elementary school teacher and have not actually done this yet, but was
just thinking about introducing letterboxing to my students. My first
thought was to go through the process... using foam pieces for the stamp..
and then have the kids plant them around school.. inside the building. They
can write the clues and we instantly have 30 boxes to practice our compass
skills, counting, decoding, reading and a hundred other skills on. Then
once they're comfortable with that I thought about moving it outside.

Melanie
-----Original Message-----
From: Lori Doobie [mailto:dragonladytcb@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 8:18 AM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] All teachers, counselors, Scout leaders, and parents


All Teachers, Counselors, Scout leaders, and Parents,
I am trying to find out how to present letterboxing to all students. I
would like to see how you worked it in your planners, what age groups you
worked with, what you would have done differently, what tools did you allow
them to use for carving, did you use store bought stamps, were there
troubles taking the kids out ot plant and how close to school or church did
you go, who wrote up the clues, I am looking for detail, I love details. I
need the whole scoop!! The more the better.
Please e-mail me at ohwiseone 56 at hotmail dot com

I am so excited about this.
Thanks to all in advance,
Dragon Lady of The Columbian Bugs


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Hi Lori,

We have a master plan for introducing letterboxing to
our scout den!

A few months ago, we took them camping and my daughter
and I went a few days ahead of time and planted five
boxes (Silver Eagle and BabyBear both have boxes
planted in the place we were camping, but we didn't
want to break the boys in on "real" boxes). We made
clues with a combination of visual hints, compass
readings, and paces. Instead of stamps, we put
stickers in the boxes and little notebooks for them to
sign in to. This narrowed it down to only the hunt
and find. Once they earn their whittling chip, we'll
help them carve their own stamps and we'll take them
out again. We may do a soap carving first, but BSA is
very specific about how and when boys can use knives,
so we need to brush up on how the rules read and how
light carvings are done before we decide about that.
We'll probably play with our practice boxes again when
they learn to stamp, and when we feel they are
trustworthy with "live ammo" and "real targets", we'll
take them to find some real boxes. When we took them
a few months ago, my daughter and I stationed
ourselves centrally to the boxes and were available to
help them with clues that got past them. We didn't
immediately tell them where to find boxes, but gave
them helpful hints. In one case, I was on the trail
very near to BabyBear's box when a team came through,
so I removed it (out of sight) and showed them the
box, letting them know it had been hidden very near
where they were. They were completely enthralled with
it.

I'm talking about second grade boys for your
reference.

Lucy



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--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Lori Doobie wrote:
> All Teachers, Counselors, Scout leaders, and Parents,
> I would like to see how you worked it in your planners, what age groups you
worked with, what you would have done differently, what tools did you allow them to
use for carving, did you use store bought stamps, were there troubles taking the kids
out ot plant and how close to school or church did you go, who wrote up the clues, I
am looking for detail, I love details. I need the whole scoop!! The more the better.

Hey there Dragon Lady,

I'm a Girl Scout leader and trainer

I've taken a few of the families of my 5th grade Juniors out letterboxing and have
presented it as a fun family activity for getting out in the wilderness and have a good
time. Now that several of the girls are doing it, we've talked about creating stamps as
part of the "Art in 3D" badge, but I don't actually take the girls out letterboxing
myself.

The 9th grade cadette troop (only 3 girls) is completely into it. We started out
searching for local boxes with store bought personal stamps and have since created
our own stamps (out of fun foam glued to a block). Of the three girls, two have gone
out with their families to letterbox as well.

My friend and fellow trainer and I are also planning a carving workshop for older girls
and adults. Our plans are to carve and hide stamps relating to GS events on our Girl
Scout properties and at daycamp. We would only give out the clues to scouts (since
these properties are not open to the public.) Our workshop is planned for next
October and by the time that rolls around we expect to have at least 6 "official" Scout
stamps hidden. This way we figure that we'll share the sport in a limited way and then
anyone who really gets into it will probably go that extra step to find letterboxing,org
on their own!

Howls,
Werewulf

I'm a high school counselor, and as others said, I wouldn't trust
most of my kids with "real" boxes due to the vandalism issue. Also,
we're in a city (Philadelphia) which makes it hard to transport the
kids to and from boxes, as most are in the 'burbs.

However, when it gets warmer, I'll be working in collaboration with
one of the History teachers when he goes on a field trip to Valley
Forge National Park. I'm going to create boxes just for that class
trip, hide them myself the day of the trip, and then remove them when
we leave. That way it'll be more fun and interactive than just a
regular guided tour of the park. Additionally, I'll tell the kids
that if they're interested in learning more about the hobby, they can
come speak to me personally after the trip - that way I hope to weed
out the disinterested ones and/or potential vandals.

Fleur de Lis


--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Lori Doobie
wrote:
> All Teachers, Counselors, Scout leaders, and Parents,
> I am trying to find out how to present letterboxing to all
students. I would like to see how you worked it in your planners,
what age groups you worked with, what you would have done
differently, what tools did you allow them to use for carving, did
you use store bought stamps, were there troubles taking the kids out
ot plant and how close to school or church did you go, who wrote up
the clues, I am looking for detail, I love details. I need the whole
scoop!! The more the better.
> Please e-mail me at ohwiseone 56 at hotmail dot com
>
> I am so excited about this.
> Thanks to all in advance,
> Dragon Lady of The Columbian Bugs
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I used a drawing of one of our students and carved it into a stamp.
But I only introduced her to letterboxing out of all ~60 of our
after school kids. She wanted to throw out her picture and I
thought it was too cute (especially for a stapm) I had her pick the
park and I placed it. She also named the box (Mr. Bow Bow)

Schizokeet





--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Lori Doobie
wrote:
> All Teachers, Counselors, Scout leaders, and Parents,
> I am trying to find out how to present letterboxing to all
students. I would like to see how you worked it in your planners,
what age groups you worked with, what you would have done
differently, what tools did you allow them to use for carving, did
you use store bought stamps, were there troubles taking the kids out
ot plant and how close to school or church did you go, who wrote up
the clues, I am looking for detail, I love details. I need the whole
scoop!! The more the better.
> Please e-mail me at ohwiseone 56 at hotmail dot com
>
> I am so excited about this.
> Thanks to all in advance,
> Dragon Lady of The Columbian Bugs
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi,
Our den made stamps out of the foam material and a
pair of scissors. Most of the bous used either their
name or their initials. This is a safe alternative to
using a knife for carving.
The foan was cut out and then glued to a piece of
cardboard. A cork was also glued to the back so they
had something to hold on to when stamping.
Susan
Lpfrog of Lpfrognmac
--- Barefoot Lucy wrote:
> Hi Lori,
>
> We have a master plan for introducing letterboxing
> to
> our scout den!
>
> A few months ago, we took them camping and my
> daughter
> and I went a few days ahead of time and planted five
> boxes (Silver Eagle and BabyBear both have boxes
> planted in the place we were camping, but we didn't
> want to break the boys in on "real" boxes). We made
> clues with a combination of visual hints, compass
> readings, and paces. Instead of stamps, we put
> stickers in the boxes and little notebooks for them
> to
> sign in to. This narrowed it down to only the hunt
> and find. Once they earn their whittling chip,
> we'll
> help them carve their own stamps and we'll take them
> out again. We may do a soap carving first, but BSA
> is
> very specific about how and when boys can use
> knives,
> so we need to brush up on how the rules read and how
> light carvings are done before we decide about that.
>
> We'll probably play with our practice boxes again
> when
> they learn to stamp, and when we feel they are
> trustworthy with "live ammo" and "real targets",
> we'll
> take them to find some real boxes. When we took
> them
> a few months ago, my daughter and I stationed
> ourselves centrally to the boxes and were available
> to
> help them with clues that got past them. We didn't
> immediately tell them where to find boxes, but gave
> them helpful hints. In one case, I was on the trail
> very near to BabyBear's box when a team came
> through,
> so I removed it (out of sight) and showed them the
> box, letting them know it had been hidden very near
> where they were. They were completely enthralled
> with
> it.
>
> I'm talking about second grade boys for your
> reference.
>
> Lucy
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool.
> Try it!
> http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/
>


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/