DisruptED TV Magazine
Learning Outside the Box in Early Childhood Classrooms
By Molly K. Ness, Ph.D.
Abstract
A box is just a box, until it is handed over to an imaginative class of Kindergarten students. Using cardboard boxes, Mrs. Hudson’s class builds a replica of their town and its landmarks. Imaginations run wild as children engage in rich oral language, symbolic play, and early geography skills.
At my nephew’s first birthday, I showed up to the party with a carefully chosen, developmentally appropriate toy. My nephew was far more intrigued by the gift’s cardboard container than by the toy itself. The toy was tossed to the side, but the baby spent hours crawling in and out of the box, turning it on its side, and fashioning it into a hiding spot, a fort, and a napping spot. So common is this experience that cardboard boxes were inducted in 2005 into the National Toy Hall of Fame. In fact, the following children’s literature captures the allure of boxes for young children:
· Not a Box by Antoinette Portis (2007)
· What To Do With a Box (2016) by Jane Yolen
· A Box Story (2012) by Kenneth Lamug
· Box (2016) by Min Flyte
