Not a Box

I’ve been reading Antoinette Portis’ book, Not a Box, to my kindergarten classes.  Before reading the book I tell them I hope they brought their imagination with them.  I ask them what imagination is and there is usually one or two who can articulate what imagination is.  They really enjoy this book.  After reading the book I explain that they will be receiving a “box” (small square cut from grocery bags) that they will glue onto their paper and make it whatever they want it to be.  After the first class I decided that I needed to brainstorm with them what their box could be as they mostly drew objects that were in the book.  After brainstorming I got a few more varied ideas, but still some just drew what was in the book (race car, rocket ship, building).

It’s a pet store.

It’s a building.

It is a store.

Acting Out the Story

After the finished their drawing each student got inside a box.  I would ask them, “Why are you sitting in a box?”  They would reply, “It’s not a box.  It is a ____.” I placed all their responses into a Google Slide presentation and shared it with their teacher.  They got a huge kick out of sitting in the box.  Lots of smiles and giggling.  Ah, the simple things.

Videotaping students in a box.

Big Orange Splot and Expressing Ourselves

In their IB Unit of Inquiry: How We Express Ourselves, the central idea for our first grade students is “Our creations persuade, inform and entertain us.”  I looked for ways for the students to express themselves.  We read Daniel Manus Pinkwater’s book, The Big Orange Splot.

I gave them a paper with a quote from the book, “My house is me and I am it.  My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams.”  I asked them to design their dream house.  I just stood back and was amazed with their creativity and ideas.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit and LEGO Garden

Our first grade classes are inquiring into the basic needs of plants and animals.  I’d run through most of my standard read-alouds about plants and animals when I saw a post on Instagram where a librarian had the students design a garden after reading Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  Bingo….never reinvent the wheel when you can borrow a good idea!

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

I wasn’t surprised that most of our students had not read/heard this classic book, although several said they had seen the movie!  They were very engaged and were anxious about Peter getting caught.

Brainstorming

After the first class I realized that we needed to brainstorm ideas of what they could include in their garden.  I just used a white board to record details they recalled from the text.  Then I turned them loose with the LEGO baseplates and LEGOS.

Fun with LEGOS

This is Mr. McGregor with his hoe!

A carrot!

The most enjoyable part was circulating amongst the students and asking them about what they were creating.  They had all sorts of good ideas and were very articulate about what they were making.  One had a “video camera” (like a Ring) so Mr. McGregor could see if animals were coming into his gardent!

Third Designs Galimotos

     We read Karen Williams’s book, Galimoto about an African child who builds his toy galimoto from wire he has collected. After designing on paper the students created their galimotos using 10 pipe cleaners. This activity was a good way for students to use creativity and work on those fine motor skills.  Some of them had a more difficult time translating their two dimensional drawing into a three dimensional object.  We also see that some children need more opportunities to practice and develop their fine motor skills (twisting wire, using scissors, etc.).

Students used Flipgrid to describe the process for viewers. Creativity and engineering on display.