Take It From Here #1 - Surprise Box

This post is the first of a series with the title, "Take It From Here." The "Take It From Here" posts briefly describe an activity, a project, or a teaching strategy for you to take away and either use as is or modify to fit your grade level and learning environment. The ideas are meant to be easy to replicate and are based on readily available materials.

Take It From Here #1 - Surprise Box
To create a Surprise Box, cut a circle in one end of a sturdy cardboard carton. Make the circle large enough for your hand to fit through. Poke three holes along both edges of the flaps on the top of the carton. Thread a shoelace through the holes so that the flaps can be pulled apart enough to put an object inside the carton. Pull the laces tight after putting the object inside.

Cover the carton with colorful wrapping paper or "contact" paper.

To make it more difficult to see inside the carton through the hand hole, glue or tape the top part of an old sock to the hand hole. (The top part of the sock is the straight part that remains after the foot part with the toe and heel has been cut off. An adult sized sock works best.)

Now your Surprise Box is ready for classroom use, as in the following examples:

To introduce, summarize, or review a unit of study, put individual objects related to that unit into the Surprise Box. Ask a student to reach into the box, pull out the object, identify the object, and explain how it relates to the topic of the unit. If the item is too large to be pulled out through the hand hole, ask the student to identify it and then take it out through the flaps at the top of the Box.
Examples: To introduce a unit on Israel, put an Israeli coin, a small plastic bag of dates, a small Israeli flag, a postcard from Israel, or an envelope with Israeli stamps on it into the Box.
To complete a unit on Hanukkah, put a little dreidel, a candle, or picture of Judah Maccabee into the Surprise Box.

As a modern Hebrew language exercise, put items into the Surprise Box that represent vocabulary words which the students are studying. Students pull out an item, name the item in Hebrew and use the Hebrew word for the item in a Hebrew sentence. The sentence may be an original one which the student composes or it may make use of a grammatical pattern (such as the possessive), which you supply.

For younger children, the Surprise Box can be a regular feature of the Early Childhood classroom routine. After a few experiences with the Surprise Box, the children will come to associate it with the introduction of something new and special. The items in the Surprise Box might include a utensil for a cooking project, a paintbrush or tube of glitter for an art activity, an item related to a new read-aloud book, a paper snowflake or small paper umbrella to start a weather conversation.

Depending on the age of the students, the child might describe what he/she is touching in the Surprise Box and have the class guess the item described.

NB: When using the Surprise Box, especially with younger children, I stress that the contents of the Box will always be fun and pleasant - that there will never be anything scary or yucky in the Box. The cheerful wrapping paper on the outside of the box, reinforces this statement.

The Surprise Box adds visual and tactile stimulation to any lesson. It transforms a routine exercise into an entertaining game. Once you've made a Surprise Box, it can be used year after year, class after class.

Enjoy a Surprise Box with your students. Share this idea with your colleagues and...Take It From Here!