Thursday, 15 January 2009

The Secret Box


What is one thing that all human beings love?

That's right - suspense!


People of all ages love a good mystery... kids even more so.
So one of the little systems I have in my classroom is a Secret Box.

Using a very fashionable shoe box (I'm all for recycling!), I started collecting various knick knacks - some real gems like ice-cream coupons and chocolate bars, some fun flukes like heart-shaped balloons and tiny pieces of wrapped candy. Anytime I see something I think would be interesting to add to the box, I do one of these two options:
  1. Put it in the box secretly.
  2. Make a big show out of putting it into the box so the kids know something interesting is going in.


My Secret Box is a veritable stash of good fun, and can be used for different situations:

  1. To accompany certificates during my monthly class award presentation,
  2. Random lucky draws from the Caught Doing Good jar (more about that in this post),
  3. Birthdays
  4. Student of the Week


I will add a picture to this post soon - camera's not in use right now.

In the meantime, why not start your own secret box?
If you do, please link up to this post (if you have a blog) with pictures etc... or just sign my guestbook/write a comment about YOUR Secret Box, tell me what novel items you placed in it, and what your students' reactions were.

By the way, try it with any age group - you'd be surprised at the results! ;)

2 COMMENTS:

Anonymous said...

hello...
i like your idea on this secret box...can u please tell me more about the Caught Doing Good Jar..how do u get this going?...thanks again

Unknown on 15 February 2009 at 21:53 said...

Hi Anon, thanks for leaving a comment - I will write a post on the Caught Doing Jar sometime this week. Stay tuned! :)

 

Purposeful Teaching - Motivating Teachers Copyright © 2008 Black Brown Art Template designed by Ipiet's Blogger Template