Trees and Leaves

Materials

pictures of trees

leaves

construction paper

crayons

Instructions

1. Separate the materials (tiles, puzzles,
manipulatives, and wooden shapes) into
plastic bags.
2. Fill at least three boxes with the same activity. Rotate the activities weekly to
keep the novelty.
3. Place the lids on the boxes after filling them, and put them on a convenient
shelf. Introduce how to use the boxes during morning time.
4. A popular box contains mosaic tile tangrams (a Chinese puzzle in which a
square is made out of seven shapes) and index cards. The children can make
a design out of the tiles and trace them on the cards. Another favorite box
contains rubber stamps and paper for making patterns or holiday cards.
5. The purpose of these boxes is for transition time. The boxes provide children
who finish assignments early with an alternative to reading a book while the
other children are finishing.
More to do Manipulatives: Make simple puzzles by drawing a picture of a familiar fun
activity on a piece of shirt cardboard and cutting it out with an Ellison punch
machine.