FAQ
Our dice are all sold individually. We also have many dice kits assembled for various grade levels and class sizes of 24 to 30 students.
We are unable to provide free shipping without the risk of greatly increasing our product costs. We endeavor to keep the price of our products as low as possible while also being transparent about the actual cost of shipping. If you have any further questions about our shipping charges, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yes, certainly! However, we are an office/warehouse located in Edmonton, Alberta, not a store, and as such we have limited hours. Contact us if you wish to pick up your order and we will make every effort to accommodate you.
Box Cars And One-Eyed Jacks is an office/warehouse and does not have a store, so we don’t have store hours. Our location in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada consists of our offices and warehouse only. Due to safety and insurance considerations, the general public is not allowed in our warehouse, but we can assemble an order for local pickup. Please give us a call for more information.Do you take school or district purchase orders?
Yes! The best way to work with your school or district Purchase Order (PO) is to call (780) 440-6284 or Email orders@boxcarsandoneeyedjacks.com, or fax (780) 440-1619 your order and PO into us. Please call for more specifics.
Orders are shipped out Tuesday through Thursday and will arrive within 10 business days. If you live in the United States it can take a little bit longer since your order will have to cross the border.
For orders below $39.95, you will have to contact our office. Because of our variety of books and manipulatives, we hope you’ll be able to find enough amazing products to add to your cart to meet this minimum that will suit your needs! Or, you can team up with a teaching colleague and put in an order together to share the shipping!
Box Cars ships to Canada and the United States. We accept international orders as long as they ship to a U.S. address and are prepaid using a bank draft (we do not accept international credit cards). Contact our office for more information or to request a quote.
Box Cars will call and ask for your Federal Tax ID number if you live in the United States and your order is over $500. This is to ensure that your order does not get held up at Customs while it is crossing the border. Ask your purchasing/ accounting department if you aren’t sure what your school’s FEI number is.
Paypal is the mechanism through which all our online credit card sales are processed, whether the customer has a Paypal account or not. You do not need to have a Paypal account to shop with us; simply opt to checkout as a guest.
Visit our Webinars info page for a step-by-step on how to download handouts. If you’re still having issues, please contact our head office.
Absolutely! Visit our Custom Kits page for more info or contact our head office.
Yes! Check out our resources for family products, and consider having your school organize a math or literacy family night workshop!
We seek to deliver the best possible virtual or in-person workshops for your school districts and schools.
We charge between $500.00 – 750.00 per hour for speaking fees for each facilitator, plus travel expenses for in person trainings. These costs can be shared between multiple school sites if you join together for a workshop. Grants and professional development funds typically cover the costs. Call for quotes; depending on the size of your district, pre-purchases, and the number of schools involved, costs can vary.
No, BUT, we do provide discounts for any school or district that pre-purchases kits or materials for teachers to use at the workshop. Box Cars can provide custom kits for any pre-purchases ahead of a workshop and have them shipped in time for use during the workshop. If there is no budget available for pre-purchase of kits, our presenters will bring manipulatives and materials for participants to use in in-person workshops. If you’re participating in a virtual workshop, participants will be asked to bring easy to find manipulatives such cards and dice to the zoom webinar. Some schools wait until after the workshop to order kits and resources for their teachers and classrooms to get exactly what the teachers want, and that’s perfectly fine!
We advise booking workshops 6 to 12 months in advance, although sometimes time frames less than this can be accommodated. There is no charge to HOLD dates as you plan and budget for professional development, so the more time upfront you book a date, the better. We give you first right of refusal if another district is requesting the same date and time. Remember to keep in mind that certain months of the year fill quickly with contracts – summer, fall, and early spring.
Yes, that is what we are known for! Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have done a great job providing a wide variety of workshop formats, and schools are always an active part of all the planning that goes into any professional development contract. When you call to inquire we will ask you a lot of questions to help both of us design your ideal workshop format. Some typical formats include:
Full day training – can be primary teachers with one consultant, simultaneously upper elementary teachers with another consultant. We have also provided 2 day training sessions for these grade level bands.
Half Day training – typically primary teachers half day, upper elementary teachers half day. A single consultant can facilitate this.
75 – 90 minute After School Sessions – narrower topic focus typically.ie. Primary place value, upper elementary fractions, primary operational fluency. We have well over 20 topics that can be delivered this way for K – middle years (6 -grade 8/9). These are best delivered virtually as the costs associated with bringing in a consultant for just a short session is cost prohibitive. The beauty of a virtual format is that we can plan a series of 5 to 8 topics scattered throughout your school year for ongoing professional development. We can provide simultaneous sessions (ie k – 2, Grade 3 – 5, and Grade 6 – 9 with three consultants). The school or district doesn’t have to provide substitute teachers with this format, a huge cost saving, and teachers can still get home in time for supper! These are usually scheduled about 15 minutes after the school day finishes, they go for 75-90 minutes, then the teachers still get home at a reasonable hour.
We will also make sure to find out about your demographics, teacher needs and requests, and areas that you want focused on.
Throughout the global pandemic, we have prided ourselves on pivoting to virtual formats while keeping the workshops hands-on, engaging, and practical. We are able to provide a session where teachers engage in playing many math or literacy games, interact in break out rooms and chat. Now as we move into hybrid formats, teachers are working together and watching the workshop on a larger screen in a teaching center or designated classroom working in small groups or with a partner. The main benefit for continuing virtual format is cost savings – there are no charges other than speaking fees for the workshop. Districts have been using these cost savings to purchase classroom resource kits.
Box Cars will invoice typically the week of the workshop, according to the directions of the school or district. Some contracts require a specific billing period, and we can invoice ahead of the workshop, some want it billed immediately at time of confirming the contract to spend out budget dollars, some require us to quote and wait for a district PO. We can accommodate all these requests. Pre-purchase of teacher resource kits can be invoiced on the same or separate invoice in order to accommodate your district requirements. Box Cars can complete all your necessary paperwork that may be required by your district in order for us to provide professional development.
Speaking fees for virtual family math nights are $600.00 – these fees are a little lower than our hourly speaking fees for teacher sessions as Box Cars understands that some funding may be coming from Parent organizations, and funds may be more limited. Virtual family math nights are typically held on the platform Zoom (or, sometimes, on the district’s mandated platform) and run 45 to 50 minutes for primary students and continue 45 to 50 minutes for upper elementary students.
Yes we have a wide variety of resources and budget levels for family resources. These are typically pre-purchased and given to the families ahead of any virtual event (shipped to the school 3 weeks in advance) to use the night of the event. These resources are then kept in the homes for follow up use. If the family math night is in-person, kits can still be pre-purchased and used during the event where they are then taken home. If there is no budget for family kits, we ask that families have a deck of cards and regular dice for virtual events, for in-person, consultants will bring materials for the families to use.
Yes – Box Cars has long been known for math nights, but we also have Literacy games, resources, and manipulatives. We can provide literacy family nights as well as family literacy kits.
We have a wide range of literacy teacher resources, kits and manipulatives, and we provide 90 minute to half day teacher workshops for this part of the curriculum.
It is best to book these workshops 6 months in advance. Be sure to allow 3 to 4 weeks for delivery of any pre-purchased kits.
We have a wide range of literacy teacher resources, kits and manipulatives, and we provide 90 minute to half day teacher workshops for this part of the curriculum.
Most kits (KM KMDL KL, KLDL designations on the website) are designed for approximately 24 students. Manipulatives such as cards, dice, dice trays, number lines, dominoes, and shakers are meant to be shared between students. Deluxe kits may contain extra supplies for slightly larger class sizes.
If you require extra manipulatives, all items can be purchased singly, in pairs, and in many cases, smaller sets.
We also have some smaller Mini Kits available, which are designed for resource room teachers working with small groups of 6 to 8 students, or for use in centers. We can also put together custom student sets (CSSO’s designations) that schools have been purchasing for individual student use — no sharing to align with social distancing policies.
