Holiday in a box

I find that at the end of any holiday we celebrate at home or in my classroom, I often have a variety of different objects left over. A fun and simple way to use up those holiday left-overs is to invite your students to make their very own “Holiday in a Box!”…

Holiday in a Box by Teach Preschool

To make a holiday in a box, you will need a box to start with.  In the past, we have used shoe-box lids and cardboard jewelry boxes.  This year, we used some left-over square gift boxes. We used both the bottom and the top of each box as a holiday box…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

Oh, and to go along with our holiday boxes, we read the book “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell!” by Lucille Colandro.  This book ties in nicely since it seems the old lady likes to swallow many of the things we used in our holiday boxes…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

To fill our holiday boxes, we used items that we had on hand like bows, bells, candy canes, ribbon, ornaments, and glue. You can modify the objects you collect and set out to represent the holiday(s) your are celebrating in your own classroom…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

To make the holiday boxes, the children set their boxes up at one table and made a large puddle of glue into the box…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

Next, the children tilted their boxes different directions until the glue covered the entire bottom of the box…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

I would say that the amount of glue varied in each box but we added enough so that the holiday objects would sit down into the glue just a little bit…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

Once the children added the glue to their boxes, then the children went to the other table to select what they wanted to put inside their boxes.  To slow the children down just a bit and to get them to think about what they wanted in their boxes, I told the children they could only select one item at a time from the table to put in their box then they could go back again and select another and so on…

gifts, gems, dice 143

As the children added things to the glue in their holiday boxes, they took their time to decide where they wanted the items to lay. In other words, they made their own designs…

gifts, gems, dice 136

We have done these types of glue boxes before so my students have a good grasp on what it means to take time to think about where they want things to go in their boxes rather than just rushing around and tossing things any old place in the box…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

Once the children added their items to their holiday boxes, we set them aside to dry for a few days.  The length of time for drying will depend on how much glue the children used to begin with.  I find that if I set the boxes up where they are not laying completely flat on the floor, they will dry faster…

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Here are a couple of our completed boxes…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

And this is a set of our holiday in a box after they were almost completely dry (a few still had a little bit of wet glue dripping when we set them up on the shelf). Once the holiday boxes are all up where we can see them, we can play the “I Spy” game!…

Holiday In A Box by teach Preschool

Links to Grow on

Here are a few other glue boxes we made…

Math Glue Boxes by Teach Preschool

Nature Glue Boxes by Teach Preschool

And this is the holiday boxes made by The Seeds Network last year…

Seasonal Shadow Boxes by The Seeds Network

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Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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