The Box: 6 Learning Opportunities

This lesson was contributed by:

Joanne Mifsud

This lesson is for:

Lesson Duration:

140 mins.

What should you expect from this lesson?

This is an exciting learning curve which gives you as a parent/guardian the insight to know your child better. Imaginative play is key for the development of your child. The learning experiences present an opportunity for the children to observe, question, predict, analyse, share and create.

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How to carry out this lesson at home:

Recommendations for parents/guardians:

  1. These resources have been prepared for children to learn from and enjoy together with caring adults, and for adults to enjoy spending quality time with young children while supporting the child’s holistic development. The various learning experiences emerge and build around a story, rather than from the child’s interest (as in the case of the emergent curriculum approach). Each story presents opportunities, within a context, for the development of different areas of learning, in an integrated approach (language, science, mathematics and others).
  2. Have a look at the learning experience before you engage your child. You might need to prepare some resources.
  3. These educational opportunities are not a rigid programme to be followed scrupulously. Each opportunity depends upon the abilities of the child and his/her active participation and involvement. Such educational opportunities seek to promote enjoyment whilst learning and should consequently be used in flexible ways.
  4. The adults’ role is one of a gentle guide who supports and models learning using positive and encouraging approaches. These experiences provide children with the opportunity to try things out, explore and in the process develop resilience and self-esteem.
  5. These learning opportunities have been designed to promote language, amongst other things. One therefore needs to use the language of the story. Even if the child replies or expresses him/her self in another language, acknowledge their understanding but model the reply in the language of the story. Be aware of the language used and word pronunciation, particularly with very young children. Should the child repeatedly express him/herself in one-word or two-word phrases, it is good to acknowledge his/her response and then repeat his/her reply using a correct, full sentence.
  6. Children enjoy listening to the same story and may request repeating the same activity. This helps them practise and elaborate their understanding in the process. Although adults might find it annoying to repeat, kindly make sure that you always take the time to respond to the children’s requests. Consolidate their learning and if possible, extend their thinking through open ended questions, by gradually giving less support or by making the same experience more challenging.

Dawn ir-rakkomandazzjonijiet bil-Malti tista’ ssibhom fis-sezzjoni tar-riżorsi.

Children are very imaginative human beings. Please find a short video that will help you understand the philosophy of the upcoming learning opportunities as a parent/guardian (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXqFv610g0o&t=23s) . After you watch the video ‘Not a Box’, you will realise that a simple cardboard box means so much to a small child.

Learning Opportunity 1 (time depends on the length of time the child engages in play with the box/es):

In the current situation, with delivery of groceries reaching our doorsteps, you probably have a couple of cardboard boxes waiting to be thrown away. Don’t! Clean them well with water and soap and stack them away from your child for about five days, to make sure that they are totally safe to use. Once you have two or more boxes available, leave these boxes where your child can reach them and tell the child that s/he can play with them. Observe the child while s/he plays with them. Observe how the child holds the box (or boxes); which fingers s/he uses and which muscles s/he is using most. Look at her/his face while holding the box, that is, whether the child is showing signs that the box is heavy, that the texture of the box irritates her/him, that s/he has a good grasp of it to raise it from the floor and take it to another room or whether it suits her/him to drag the box behind her/him. Observe her/his talk. The child may start talking or doing sounds as s/he plays with the box. Notice what kind of sounds the child uses; some children observed during such a task used sounds such as “voom”, pretending it is a car or “woosh”, pretending it is an aeroplane. The box becomes a house and the child takes the role of the parent and talks just like a parent.   All this is Pretend Play. You may look up more information about this important aspect in the child’s development on the following site: https://www.scholastic.com/parents/kids-activities-and-printables/activities-for-kids/arts-and-craft-ideas/importance-pretend-play.html.

Learning Opportunity 2 (approx. 1 hour):
Once the child has had enough time (it may take hours or a day or two) to explore the box/es, you may sit down with the child and come up with the following questions:
• What are you playing with? (The child might reply ‘a box/boxes’, but s/he may tell you ‘a racing car’ or any other thing that s/he imagines it to be).
• Depending on the reply of the child, you may continue asking the following questions while pointing to one box:
What do you like about it? (The child may highlight anything, from texture (if a box) to speed (if a racing car) to comfort (if a house) or any other answer that shows that the child was engaged).
How can you use it to help you? (Example of replies your child may give: if a box: to sort out things; if a racing car: to arrive quickly at a destination; if a house: to stay away from the cold; the list goes on depending on the child’s response)
Do you think you can do something else with it? (Let the child come up with her/his ideas and don’t shoot down any of them).
• Following the child’s reply, you can continue playing with her/him and help her/him in the creation of this new situation. So it would be good to see what other items you might need to plan the new situation. The following materials always come in handy:
Stickers, stamps, colouring implements such as crayons, painting brushes, paint and markers, glue, fabric, newspaper and magazine cut-outs, tape, pipe cleaners, ribbons, string, empty plastic bottles, used buttons, plastic lids, glitters, pieces of jablo, straws, small strips of wood, etc.

It is important that while the child is creating the new scenario, the child is working under the supervision of an adult to make sure that none of the items is placed in the mouth or used carelessly.

If for some reason, the child does not come up with ideas, you can give her/him the following to choose from:
A boat/pirates’ ship; a robot; a tunnel; a tower; a washing machine; a drum; a train; a puppet theatre; a letter box; a racing car; a wardrobe; a camp.
Alternatively, the child might ask to do something which needs the box to be cut in pieces, such as street signs or create a racing track for the toy cars.
• At this point, the project may start. This is a very exciting part! As a parent/guardian you may notice the eye-hand coordination, the handling of the various items, language development during the process of building/creating this item, the imagination of your child and the use of hands in developing her/his fine motor skills. You may take photos/video of the child building her/his project. Photos/video will eventually help you to keep track of and discover other strengths in your child, such as being able to work on own initiative, and they may also highlight a challenge which you would need to address, such as speech. Besides, eventually, you can show the photos/video to the child who would be able to see the process of her/his project and realise the different steps it takes.  The photos/video can also be used as an opportunity to engage in a conversation with the child about her/his play. Such capturing moments serve also as a good memento for the child when s/he grows up.

Learning Opportunity 3 (approx. 20 mins+):
Once the project is done, you can follow it up by highlighting the creativity of the child in making use of the project. For example, if the project is a racing car, speak of a situation whereby your child becomes the driver of the racing car. Stimulate the child’s cognitive development by presenting a situation: in the near future, there is a car race and s/he needs to prepare well for the race, such as checking the wheels of the car, the helmet s/he needs, the cooling suit s/he needs to put on, the fitness training that needs to be done to be flexible and to remain calm. Then, there comes the day of the race. Let the child play and experience the joy of pretend play. You can follow this sequence of ideas on any item your child would have opted for, be it a toy house, a washing machine or a pirates’ ship. This is a way of applying what the child would have managed to create to a real situation, even though it’s through play. (Resource 1)

Learning Opportunity 4 (approx. 30 mins +):
After some time, you can make use of another box to make the child aware of certain properties of the box. By using different boxes (big, small, plastic, cardboard), together with your child, you can explore what a box is like. The following properties may be highlighted:
• It has six faces;
• The faces have a shape – squares or rectangles;
• It has eight points, called vertices;
At this point, as a parent/guardian together with your child, you may count the faces of each box and discover that a box has six faces, hence highlighting number 6. You can actually put your hand on each face while counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The faces of the box can be marked with numbers and then you would play: tap the number on the bottom, on the top, and on the other faces according to the number that is marked or stuck to the box. The same process can be repeated with the different boxes you have at hand. This strategy will enable the concept to seep in through play. You may eventually count back from 6 down to 0 (6,5,4,3,2,1,0).
You can then speak of the shape/s found in your boxes. They can either be all squares, all rectangles or a mix of the two. If the child can name them, it would be great, but if s/he won’t be able to, then go to this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsWOS575gxk)  and after watching it, ask the same question.
Exploring further the boxes, you can identify the points, of which there are eight in all. You can also mention the proper word for the points (1 vertex and many vertices). You can reinforce this by going to watch the number 8 song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVChFlUwoO4). This song goes through all the numbers from 8 and back.

Learning Opportunity 5 (approx. 15 mins +):
This learning activity is a multisensory task. Watch this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax7ujAm5Gr8) on your own. By using a box to prepare the feely box which has been demonstrated in the mentioned video, play this game with your child. You will realise how such a simple activity stimulates the child to touch, to feel, to speak, to smell, to think, to question.

Learning Opportunity 6 (approx. 15 mins+):
This activity revolves around the story of Jack in the box. Watch the video with your child (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdDib6tp-Do). Watch it again while the child is encouraged to repeat the song and the gestures which are implied in the action song. Moreover, you can prepare a box which is big enough for your child to get into, and ask your child if s/he would like to dress up like Jack in the box and repeat the song. The child can actually invent new gestures such as:
Touch your head 6 times;
Jump 8 times on the spot;
Shout ‘Hi’!
Hop 3 times;
Say “Moo! Moo!”
Reach for the sky.
Ideally this action song would be accompanied by the participation of the parents/guardians and maybe some siblings. It will be more fun for the child and it will give her/him the motivation to invent more actions.

All the resources you need to carry out this lesson at home:

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