So I've had these empty cube-shaped tissue boxes for a while and I just couldn't bear to throw them away {am I turning into my mom??}. I thought they would be perfect to make into dice and incorporate them into my classroom somehow.
I decided to paste {and by paste, I mean use A LOT of tape! maybe I will get better at making it look prettier as I go...} some brain words {our school's version of high frequency words} and have the students use them during a writing center. The idea is to have them roll the dice and write a sentence with the brain word they landed on. My only concern is that the tissue box will make a lot of noise when rolled on the table and distract the other learners :/ this may have to be a clipboard on the carpet center...we'll see though!
Here is how I made them:
Start with an empty square-ish tissue box and stuff it with newspaper:
Wrap the tissue box with paper or gift wrap. I used a brown paper bag {this project is all about re-using!}, cut it in half along the inside seam and turned it face up so that the plain side is facing out.
Then I printed out the 6 brain words I wanted to include and glued them onto each face of the box.
Before I made these, I was looking through my
Scholastic Toss & Learn Science games to find something to incorporate into our Great Body Shop Nutrition lesson. I found this really great Food-Group Pyramid puzzle and thought it would be fun to make. The funny thing was that the author suggested using a tissue box to make a game cube! Perfect!
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| {this was definitely a screen shot! go me!} |
After the kiddos cut out the puzzle pieces, I will have volunteers come up to the front and roll the food cube.
The food group on the top of the cube indicates which puzzle piece the player will arrange on their pyramid shape. I folded a 9"x12" paper in half and decided not to cut the paper so that it can stand or we can add something else in the inside flap. I traced the frame of the puzzle to help my not-so-spatial learners figure out the correct place for the puzzle piece.
I am planning on doing this whole group first so that each kid can make his/her own puzzle, and then maybe laminate the puzzle pieces and use them as an independent or group center in the future. I think I will also have the kids color their food pyramid another day, and possibly add some writing to the inside of the construction paper.
Total cost of both projects= $0!!!
{well, I guess the $1 I spent on the Toss & Learn book sorta counts}
Total time= Maybe an hour? I did it on and off all day in between lunch, walking around the neighborhood with Tom, and helping him harvest the fruit in his parents' backyard :)
I love days "off"...;)
