As I mentioned in my previous post, we have been having fun with gift boxes around the classroom and that includes our chalkboard easel too…
To put a little holiday spirit into our chalkboard easel and to promote a little bit of writing or drawing, I taped a few small gift boxes and lids to our chalkboard easel. I only taped the top edge of each open box or lid to the board using clear packing tape…
At first, the children simply drew around the boxes but then I showed them how they could also draw surprises underneath the boxes by lifting up the bottom of the box, drawing their picture or letter or design then covering it back up by putting the box back down over it…
The tape held up really well but I was prepared for a box to be pulled completely off the board. Â By the end of the day, I only had to tape one box back onto the board…
For most of the day, I just left the children to play or explore the chalkboard gift box writing game on their own…
But on occasion, I would stop by and play with a child. I would model writing a letter, number, name or shape under a box and the children would lift it up to see if they could guess what I had written or drawn. This often inspired the children to draw their own name, letter, number, or shape….
A super simple set-up with lots of room for open ended drawing and writing. Any size box will do. I just used what I had on hand but I think a larger box might help the children “feel” like they have more space to write or draw so I will try that in the future…
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