Take Home Boxes

Give each student a take home box from a restaurant or Sam’s Club/Costco. Their assignment is to color and cut out pictures of things that remain "left" in their minds even after the unit is "over!" They can decorate the top of their box, but on the inside is where you'll find the good stuff!

For example, if my students do this project after finishing a novel, I might suggest that they construct something in the "dessert" section of the box that was their favorite part. In the "meat" section might be where they describe the plot of the book. In the area where you might put a "side dish", could be where students draw and describe the characters from the book, etc.

The more 3-dimensional the diorama is, the better! These make a really cute display on a classroom shelf once they are finished sharing with their classmates.

TV Dinner Trays

When I ask for donated items at the beginning of a school year, I never forget to list "TV Dinner Trays." Here are just a few ways you can use them:

1 - Younger students can use them for counting and sorting
2 - Great for paint trays
3 - Sequence of events stories and drawings
4 - Comic strip stories
5 - A book report (ex: the "favorite part" of the story goes in the "dessert section." The "plot" of the story goes in the "main dish" section and the "characters" might go in the "side dishes" etc.)

Baby Wipes

I take a box of baby wipes with me on the playground. As the children are lined up to return to the classroom, I hand them a baby wipe to wash their hands and face; this saves time in washing hands and faces after recess when we return to the classroom for snack.

Miss Jodi