Not A Box
May 18, 2023
Book 1: Not A Box by Antoinette Portis
Activity 1: What could this box be?
———————————————
There’s a long-running joke/observation/truism that kids will have more fun with the box than the toy that comes inside it. In today’s Story Session we embraced this!
Now that they’re familiar with me and especially since they’ve all caught the squirrelies that come with being in school in May, these kiddos are little chatterboxes. Before I started reading I posed the question “Have you ever pretended one thing was really something else?”. There were so many creative ideas shared from the classic hair brush as microphone to laundry baskets as car garages and parents’ slippers as sleeping bags for stuffies. Everyone in the circle had a chance to share and it primed us to be thinking about how we might use our imaginations later in the Session.
Not A Box by Antoinette Portis
We read the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor award winner Not A Box by Antoinette Portis. It’s a delight and one of the go-to favorites at our house. In this perfectly designed book, a little imaginative rabbit shares all the imaginative things its “not a box” could be. The kids love hearing the rabbit become increasingly emphatic that the creations are not! a! box! and the sparseness of the illustrations elevates the theme of creative possibilities.
After reading, I simply let the kids loose on a pile of cardboard boxes of various shapes and sizes. “What could this box be?” I asked as they made their selections. I told them there box could be anything besides and box and to have fun. There was such joy in the room! Some of the kids decided to work together to make a train/submarine hybrid. We had another group selling sushi, tacos and ice cream from a their food truck. A few were inspired to combine boxes to make a treehouse. Some chose independent play with their boxes or chose to decorate them with markers to enhance their visions. They just played in the purest sense. Magic!
———————————————
If you’re thinking “wait, you just gave them some recycling? that’s it?”. Yep. Trust me, it’s great. If you’re the kind of person who needs more convincing you can start with this resource.
