Few things are more intriguing to a preschooler than an empty box—so many possibilities! This box began as a shipping container from Amazon. At teacher Megan Dixon’s suggestion, these Room 5 children decided to decorate it. First it was going to be a unicorn. Then a lion. Then an elephant.
“After a moment of disagreement, the children appeared to forget about the end product and simply became enchanted with the process of decorating it,” Megan says. They painted it, stuck colored tape and stickers on it, and glued jewels, feathers, foam bits, and string to it. Several children were absorbed in the project for about 25 minutes, and others stopped by to add their contributions.
Megan continues, “After we put the box out of sight in another room to let the glue dry, the children never asked about it again. They were totally in the present moment during the process, and once it was done, that was that.” But the story doesn’t end there.
Several days later, the teachers retrieved the box from its hiding place. A group of children took it into the play yard and proceeded to peel off all the things the first group had stuck on to it. “This kept them focused for 10 or 15 minutes,” Megan says. “Once they were satisfied, they put all the decorations into the box and took turns hiding the box of ‘treasures’ in the yard so the rest of the children could go on a treasure hunt.”