The First Weeks of Kindergarten: The Mystery Box

The first weeks of Kindergarten are spent figuring out what we need to do in order for us to create a learning community that works and plays together in harmony! We are learning the purpose of school, what our goals and passions are and how we are going to achieve our goals! Part of this is learning what it looks, sounds and feels like to be safe, respectful and responsible in our meeting area, in the hallway, in the cafeteria, at our tables and in our exploration areas! 

We use a lot of different tools in all of the areas of our room! I use what we call “The Mystery Box” to introduce these tools! On our first day of school, I showed them the Mystery Box and told them that tools we will need to learn will pop into this box when it feels we are ready to be respectful, responsible and safe when using the tool! The anticipation when I’m opening the box is so fun! I read a book called “The Line” then wondered what could be inside the Mystery Box! It was something we could make lines with! A pencil! I introduced how to hold a pencil and how to take care of our pencils, then they all practiced by using pencils to draw a picture of themself on the first day of school and try their best to write their name.

Each tool had a piece of literature read first to introduce what might be in the Mystery Box! After learning how to take care of our crayons, they colored the picture of themself.



A little hummingbird make all kinds of lines as he flies and a boy captures those lines through art! Markers were in the Mystery Box and we made our lines showing how well we can use and take care of them! 



We read Henri’s Scissors and learned how to hod scissors correctly pointing out in front of us when cutting! We learned how to hold them when we are walking and how to pass them to a friend safely! We cut strips of paper into squares for a name project.  Next came glue sticks and sponges to glue the paper to our names and create a roller coaster park!

We learned that we have to be extra careful with Sharpie markers since they are permanent, but they agreed that Kindergartners are capable of using these! They made self portraits to practice.



We use water colors for both art and science! They were so excited when this came out of the mystery box!



This group loves science! They want to explore, look closer and wonder about everything! We learned the difference between creative art and realistic art. In our science area we use our art materials to create realistic art to document what we see and notice. I wish I took more pictures of their documentation of the shells and rocks I set out for them!



Pipettes showed up in the mystery box and they got to use them to explore color mixing and creating different shades of the same colors. This was a great lesson to develop self control! They had to stop before each little circle got too full! This was very hard at first but when they saw they had to have that self control to show responsibility in order to use these materials, they did great! They also had to be responsible for cleaning up any spills and always had it ready for the next explorers to use!





Their favorite thing to do was to create a shade of a color to match the color cards on the table! They created darker and lighter shades of all the colors!





Otherwise, we have been making friends and developing a learning community that takes care of each other while they learn and play together!

This group seems to be developing an inquiry mindset very quickly! They want to investigate everything they see and find and have started asking if we can explore some things as a class and in our science area! This usually happens later in the year so I’m really looking forward to seeing what we will be learning together this year!