COVID Creativity: Mini-Boxes for the Win!

Whether you’re in the classroom or remote, one of your biggest challenges is what to do when you have early finishers or mini-breaks. With the health and safety rules in place due to COVID, it's not advised to share resources between students, so it's time to get creative. 

If you are in school, make up mini-boxes of interesting, curriculum-related or fine motor building materials. Have students choose one each week to be their in-school “busy box” or go-to downtime activity. At the end of the week, students will place the mini-boxes on a table and "quarantine" them.

If you are remote or have remote students, give choices and picture models for them to make up one of their own each week to keep handy at home :) Encourage use of everyday items, such as buttons, spoons, or natural or recycled materials. This is a no-cost to low-cost solution. 

"Design" your boxes to go with science exploratory units, math lessons, or word-building and letter practice. Using materials already on-hand should keep you from spending more time out of your already-stressed schedule and once they are established, they'll be in a rotation and just require occasional tweaking :)

Some examples might be: 

1 - Grab a handful of letter tiles (Scrabble?), paper and pencil and write as many words as you can from the letters. Try alphabetical order, too :) 

2 - Make a basket of bears to put in order, make patterns, count, etc. 

3 - Program bottle tops with letters - pick one at a time and write on a dry-erase board for letter practice.

4 - Supply dice and counting bears - roll, count and write down the number for practice. 

Science kits would be fun, too! Make a box of sticks. leaves and pine cones to examine, build with, sketch, etc. I threw in stripped crayons for leaf rubbings, too.

A small magnet and some metal/non-metallic items would be a great exploratory box. Add in a bunch of large paper clips for extended chains.

If you have access to craft sticks (colored ones are even more fun!) and Velcro dots, you can make a set of attachable sticks to form shapes and letters. Just put velcro on opposite sides of opposite ends and stash them in a plastic bin - fun and learning!

Pipe cleaners and beads for beading and patterning could be another box, using things you may already have access to in the classroom. Great fine-motor work!

You could try some force and motion cars and blocks, some Playdoh for many purposes ... use what you have around to make up as many mini-boxes as you want.

Legos make a great mini-box! Grab a bunch from a larger bin and make up some minis - for fun and fine-motor play.

So many choices - you can make multiple boxes of the same items, to avoid sad faces when their favorite is taken. Make the choices extend your curriculum and keep your learners engaged, while finding time to assist all learners in completion of work. 

Everyone needs a break and some creative time, even you!

Have fun!