The art & music
departments had just received a cart full of iPads that our tech guy unpacked
for them, leaving a pile of cardboard boxes behind (his office is in the media
center). I was going to put them in the recycle bin, but then I stopped to
examine looked one box and became fascinated with all the flaps and the idea
that it could fold back with ease. That got me thinking that I had to save
these boxes for the makerspace and surely we could do something with these iPad
boxes.
A few days after
that one of the second grade teachers and I have been collaborating a lot this
year talked to me about doing another project to wrap up her Jan Brett author
study after she read Honey, Honey, Lion!
to her class. When we started talking we
realized that we wanted to include some sort of art project and have the
students work with partners. Then it hit me – use the iPad boxes! They were the
perfect size, and all the flaps gave delineated areas for students to identify
the setting as well as the main & secondary characters and the
problem/solution, and a written explanation of their favorite part of the book- all elements that are found in our 2nd grade ELA standards.
On Jan Brett’s
website, we found characters from the Honey,
Honey, Lion! book that we were able to copy and randomly distribute to the
students. We also copied a few background elements and these, along with the
animals would be colored ahead of time in the classroom. Once the students
arrived in the media center, we had tempura paint, paintbrushes we borrowed from the
art teachers, Q-tips, paper plates for the paint palette, glue sticks and
plastic tablecloths leftover from the book fair. We had a sample box prepared –
but only with the colors we suggested for each section. That was the only limit
on their imagination. They were encouraged to cooperatively sketch and paint
the setting (the largest area on the box) and the animals and background pieces
could be added as needed for the other areas.
The students were
so excited to paint in the media center! They were having collaborative
discussions while actively working to complete their story box. There was only
one incident of paint on the floor – our new carpeting – but a quick dab with a
wet paper towel and everything was a-okay!
The second graders
worked for a solid 45 minutes and everyone completed their story boxes. They
were so proud of their hard work and so were we! Here's a peek at some of the completed story boxes:
Wishing you health and happiness!
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