Gather enough shoe boxes so you can have one for each student. You can use regular cardboard boxes or plastic "shoe" boxes with lids. All of the boxes should be the same size and each should have a lid. The boxes should be as square as possible, so bypass ones that have slanted sides or are unusually designed.
Take the boxes to your classroom. It is easiest to build a set of cubbies there so you won't have to transport them anywhere else. Take off all of the lids, and set them aside temporarily.
Set your boxes on the floor with the open sides up. Although you will assemble the boxes with the open ends facing up, you will eventually turn the entire cubby unit so the open ends are accessible from the front.
Arrange your boxes in whatever arrangement you'd like, keeping the open sides up. Keep in mind that the boxes will be stacked on top of one another and set up against the wall. Student must be able to access them, so the stacks cannot be too tall. Some teachers like to have two long rows of cubbies, with 10 in a row. The cubby unit can be set on the floor or on a countertop. Other teachers like to have a square, so they will put five boxes in five rows.
Take your finished arrangement and leave it lying on the floor, facing up.
Use your weather stripping. The point of the weather stripping is to keep the boxes from being flush up against one another. Depending on the arrangement you have chosen, you will have a certain number of places where boxes are touching. In each of these places, attach some weather stripping. When you have two boxes that touch, put weather stripping on one of those boxes, all around the perimeter that is touching another box. However, don't put the weather stripping flush with the open top of the box. It should be about an inch below where the box is open.
Attach the weather stripping in place with the sticky back that comes with it, or with a hot glue gun,
Press your boxes together once again.They should look like a cubby unit.
Use a staple gun to attach your cubbies to one another. Staple from the inside of each box, into the weather stripping that separates it from its neighbor. Do this on all boxes.
Use construction paper to cover the outside of your cubby unit on all four sides. Decorate it with stickers, markers or crayons.
Cover each of the box lids with construction paper.
Write one of your student's names on each construction paper-covered lid.
Give the lids to your students on the first day of school. Have them decorate their cubby-cover with crayons, markers, stickers or anything they would like.
Change lids each year for a new class of students by re-covering the lids with heavy construction paper and repeating the process.
Use the cubby unit by setting it up so the open sides face out. When the lids are finished, put them on the boxes. As you use them again and again, you might need to repair lids with tape or even replace lids.