Organized Box Tops

Aug 15

It’s been an emotional day for this mommy. My boys headed back to school today! After a long summer of family time, swimming, play time with friends and a million sweet memories, it was hard dropping them off and giving them a hug goodbye.
Suddenly, it was painfully quiet. Not the fun kind of quiet I would have expected.
*sniff sniff*
Since we’re in full-swing back to school mode, I thought a post about box top organization would lift my spirits. If your school collects box tops, you’re likely all too familiar with this sight…
For our school, this is an exciting photo. For parents, this pile can be an annoyance and nuisance. However, if you have a box top collection program at school, I highly encourage you to get involved by collecting box tops. It can be a profitable program for our under-funded schools. Each year our school collects box tops and through the program we earn enough money to buy technology items for the classrooms.
I’ve been the box top coordinator for our grade level the last several years, so I know quite a bit about them and collecting/organizing/counting. Although small in size, there is a simple and easy way to keep these little pieces of school gold under control.
Box tops can be found on a number of products. Cereal boxes…

 

Yogurt…
Office supply products…

Most of the box tops we snip come from food packaging, which means I’m clipping them in the kitchen. I discovered the best way to contain our collection…

Just a small snack-size ziploc bag clipped to the side of the fridge…

Our school collects box tops by quarter. When the letter comes home with the return deadline, I turn the job over to my 7 year old. He doesn’t mind helping because the job involves crayons and glue.

This step will be immensely helpful for your school box top coordinator. If you can, instead of returning the box tops in one large ziploc bag, consider gluing them to sheets like this…

 

These can be found at school or online with a quick google search.

There are seasonal collection sheets that we lovee to color. Here’s a few examples:

Valentine’s Day…

( via )
Winter…
( via )
( via )
Thanksgiving…
( via )
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and Halloween…
( via )
When you glue the box tops to the collection sheets, you’re helping the coordinator to not have the pain-staking job of counting the entire bag on their own. Box tops are generally collected in amounts of 50 so you can find collection sheets in either 10 or 25 count.
All your child needs to do is glue the box tops inside each of the empty squares and then color the page, if they’d like. Then you write your child’s name, grade and teacher’s name on the sheet – ensuring your child/classroom gets the credit. Our school creates a positive classroom competition, complete with prizes like a cookie party, a pizza party, a special guest speaker and more….fun activities that inspire families to collect and turn them in.
Happy collecting!

comments +

  1. Stephanie says:

    We collect box tops at our school too! In my classroom, I have an old coffee can with a slit in the top of the lid. I covered it in cute paper and printed an enlarged box top to put on the can. It works! When my students come in every morning, it's right by the door. Great program!

    • the coffee can is a great idea! love that!

      it is a wonderful program! we just received the report from last school year with how much money we earned and the technology items we purchased with the funds. it was amazing to hear how much you can make from collecting these little box tops!

      thank you for the comment,
      sam

  2. Nadia says:

    Lol! The baggie on the fridge with the clip is the exact same way we collect our box tops as well! Our school does contests twice a year to collect the box tops and the classroom with the most collected get a dilly bar party! My children and I count all the box tops we collected then divide them evenly between the two, and every year either my son or my daughter's class wins the contest because we collected so many!! I think even right now, if you go to the box tops website you can print 5 free box tops! Nice post yet again!

  3. My family collects Box Tops, and I used to be the coordinator at our school. I send our Box Tops to school in snack baggies of 50 Box Tops, carefully counted out and labelled. When I was in charge of the program I didn't like the collection sheets because the Box Tops were always falling off and it increased the weight of the package when I had to send them in. That's just what worked for me though. Love, love, love Box Tops!

    • oh boy – yes, i could see how the collection sheets could be an issue if not glued on. i'm not in charge of mailing them for our school – the other coordinator handles that. good to know!

      we love box tops too!!

      best,
      sam

  4. Amber's Mom says:

    I never heard of the coloring sheets, how awesome! I collect bocktops, even though my daughter isn't in school yet, and give them to my neices and nephews to turn in… What a cute idea for a little crafty coloring project!

    • thank you so much for the sweet comment – yes, the coloring sheets are fun and maybe that is a great way your child can get involved, even though she isn't in school yet. unless of course she's too young for crayons. 🙂

      thank you again,
      sam 🙂

  5. My daughter just started school this year so this will be the first time for me collecting box tops. If I had known about this before she started schoolI would have been busy collecting them. But these are great tips thanks for sharing

  6. I use the collection sheets to send out to the students at my school. I was told to reach our groups of 50 I could just tape those that come in loose to the back of the sheets. This way we get the most out of printing so many sheets and the kids can still have fun while collecting by coloring them. Also means I don't have to count sheets and baggies. We just stack each completed (50) sheet in a UPS Flat Rate box and all I have to do is flip though and count the sheets before sending off. Doing it this way makes it a lot easier to count in the end and I don't have to worry about weight. Plus on PTO Today you can find where some have created and shared the file for collection sheets that will hold 50 box tops.

    • Sounds like our school is doing exactly what yours is. We love box tops!!!! They make such a difference in technology for our school. How does your school use e money?

      Our first deadline is this friday and we can't wait to count them up to see which classrooms won the big prizes 🙂

      All the best,
      Sam 🙂

  7. Lisa says:

    Love this idea! I am not the coordinator, but am in charge of collecting and counting all the box tops from my daughter's room. I have a hanging file box on my kitchen counter that I found on pinterest (to reduce paper clutter…a file hangs for each one of us in the family, coupons, bills and I have dedicated a file for box tops, too!)

  8. Missy says:

    I've collected box tops forever, having turned them in to the recycling center (which is run by a private school) until now that my daughter is in Kindy. I recently turned ours into school and was disappointed at the lack of advertising, knowledge our school gives to new parents. The main office has an oversized shoe box to put them into. I'm assuming the secretaries get the job of counting, etc. Even though I'm on the PTO board there has still been no mention. I'll be changing that at our meeting on the 8th! Great idea with the sheets – and putting them into a priority box makes perfect sense. Thanks for the tip! (By the way, we collect ours similiar to yours – I have a baggie taped to the inside of my pantry door).

  9. uppyalla says:

    This will be my first year in charge of box tops. I’d love to make it fun and educational for the kids … any suggestions would be great ♥️

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