The Box Projects

My storage room was so full of boxes and the end of the year is approaching, so I had to do something!  I came up with this idea: Turn our Maker's Space into a Box Project Space! We read books about what you can do with boxes if you use your imagination! You can see them below with the boxes in my invitation to create!

I told them they could use anything they needed in our room and my storage room to create what they wanted.  They used our Planning Sheet to write what they were going to make and create a list of the materials they would need. They also had to draw a picture of their design. They got right to work!

Games were a fun one for them to make, especially this one!  How many puff balls can you get in your cup? Here are a couple designs! Here was the original design.

I love how this design inspired two friends to create their own version.  They noticed that puff balls were going off the box, so they added a backdrop to solve that problem. They also added directions and a place to store the directions. Now that is some problem solving, critical and creative thinking happening right there!

They also made rules for the class to follow if they played their game during explorations time!  This brought up a great discussion about how all rules have a reason behind them and that we all need to respect others property!

A couple made some robot masks. I love this giant one!

This friend encountered a problem!  She wanted to make a car, but all of the larger boxes were taken. A friend helped her and they came up with the solution of taking a smaller box and opening the flaps, then taping them together!   She made a car that she could sit in with a key and put it by the Dramatic Play area for others to use.

She also made some rules you can see below that say, "You cannot pull on it. If someone is in it, you cannot push it."  True authentic use of writing skills right there!

This friend also had a problem!  She and a friend were working together and wanted a car to fit two people.  Here was the problem:

At first they gave up and were making a car for one that they could share.  Here they are testing out the strength of the cups they are using for wheels to see if they will hold them up.

This didn't work so they were inspired by the previous friend's design to draw the wheels on.  They still really wanted two to sit in it so they came up with the idea of cutting two boxes and putting them together!

This friend made an airplane!  It ended up more elaborate than this so this was a work in progress! I wish I had a picture of his amazing final product with a tail, rudders, war guns (he loves planes and know the names of many military planes), propellers, and more!

Here are some friends collaborating to make a bus that could fit a driver and one passenger. They painted it and then put it together!  Here is their design!

Some used pieces of boxes to create beautiful works of art!

Mr. Myers presented the District Asset Builder of the Month at our school so he dropped by.  He is a banker so the kids had a lot of questions about banking for him.  He let them all hold a silver dollar to see how heavy it was!

This was such a great thing for them to do toward the end of school!  It really gave them a chance to use the 21st Century Skills that we have been focussing on so hard this year! Next year, if I accumulate a lot of boxes, I may do a whole inquiry on what we can do with boxes a bit earlier in the year so that we have more time and make some bigger projects! This was a completely independent invitation that was put out during our sky inquiry which you will see in the next post!