Tag Archives: not a box

"Not a Box" Linky Party: Biome Box

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I got the idea for this linky party after reading the book “Not A Box” with my daughter: a cute story about a rabbit who uses his imagination to turn an ordinary box into anything but a box. This post is all about using cardboard boxes in a fun and creative way!

Here is the cardboard creation we came up with:

This was a rainy day art project that consisted of painting 9 different biomes so my daughter’s animals could have a home. We just happen to own tons of small plastic animals. And it just so happened to fit PERFECTLY with our new learning unit on animals! 
I grabbed one of the boxes from our move (which just happened to be a box of my teaching stuff).  I opened the box so it was laying flat on the ground. 
After the box was flat, I drew 9 different biomes on the board: city, farm (both of these are totally anthropogenic, but thats where pets and farm animals live!), desert, wetlands, grasslands/savannah, tropical forest, alpine, temperate grasslands, temperate/coniferous forests (we are combining the two on our board), arctic, and marine- with a sandy beach for some of those invertebrates! After I had sketched out the outlines for each biome, Boo and I set to work painting. And yes, I craft on the floor. Not the best idea, I know…at least we didn’t spill paint on the carpet!!
We then added the animals to the correct biomes. I propped up the alpine biome (with a shoe) to make it more realistic- this way baby mountain goat can actually climb the mountain! 
Side shot of our biome box

Now it’s your turn! Submit any and all your cardboard box creations!! I have a mountain of boxes just waiting for some of your good ideas 🙂
And here is a link to my cardboard creation pinterest board– I am excited to pin your ideas!

Happy Teaching!

Upcoming Not-A-Box Linky Party

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First of all- my daughter LOVES the book Not A Box by Antoinette Portis.

Because my family recently moved, I have a gazillion cardboard boxes lying around that needed some sort of purpose! I was able to come up with some ways to creatively use cardboard boxes and thought it would be fun to have a linky party Thursday March 15 – Tuesday March 20! Please, please link up any upcycled box project- whether it be crafts, cars, or kid creations.

If you don’t have the book, its ok…check out this cute video of the story. I just love it!


Hope to see you March 15th! 

Happy Teaching!

DIY Lite Brite Board

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Ever since I made a light box (read more about it here) I knew I wanted to do something with all the lite brite pegs we have all over the playroom floor. I have been thinking HARD about how exactly to pull it off when inspiration hit me. OK, more like a piece of cardboard….

We went to Ikea today to get some bookcases. After my husband opened up the box to start putting them together, I noticed that encased in all the plywood was a beautiful, thick piece of corrugated cardboard. Perfect for a Lite Brite board- something we could add our pegs to and easily take on/off our light box. It was as if Destiny knew that we would buy bookcases and threw in a future lite brite scrap just for us. 🙂

Once I realized it was the perfect material for us to use, I set to work playing with lite brites. I made some mistakes (ginormous holes) as you will see in the pictures below… but I was just experimenting to find the best way to make a lite brite board!

Materials:
Light Table/ Light Box (read here for more details)
Lite Brite pegs
Corrugated Cardboard (can be found in packaging stores or Ikea!)

To Make the Lite Brite Board:
Mark one side of the cardboard with a “B”. This will be the back. It is important to remember which side is the back, since the holes made in the front are different.
Take a lite brite peg. On the backside push the peg all the way through the cardboard until it makes a little hole on the other side. For us, we just had to push it until the peg was flush with the cardboard but the thickness of your cardboard may be different.

Back of Lite Brite Board

Once you have made several holes, turn the cardboard over to the front side. Find the small holes and push in just the tip of the peg, so the top part is sticking out (just like in a real Lite Brite).

Front of the Lite Brite Board

Once I made a few random holes and saw how cool it was, I set to work making this semi-educational for my daughter. I wrote her nickname mirrored on the back and marked spots where I wanted to put the pegs.

Back of Lite Brite board getting ready to add Lite Brites.

Turn the board over to see the word “Boo” marked by tiny holes (not big enough for a Lite Brite peg yet).

 Insert just the tips of the pegs into the tiny holes.

Pretty soon you will see something like this… your very own Lite Brite creation. Boo will have a great time writing her name with these colorful pegs!

While I initially just played with it on top of the light box, you could also lay it against the side of the box. I also added another piece of cardboard on top to dampen the light in the room a bit.

One of the coolest thing about having a Lite Brite board (as opposed to the actual manufactured toy) is that you can turn it around and see the back. It was more cool than the front! The picture just doesn’t do it justice…. it was like little pits of color. Can you imagine the fun Christmas displays you can make with these in your window? 

 Here is a pic of just the holes- without the pegs its still pretty neat!

Our light box has been so much fun- there are so many different ways of playing with light. So if you happen to have lots of Lite Brite pegs laying around- consider making a board and using them on your light box!
Happy Teaching!
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