How to make a box fort (featuring Extended Day.)

Do you have a box at home? Then start creating!

Make a box fort!

Grab a box.

Decorate it with your markers, stickers, and tape.

Cut doors and windows. Attach fabric for a curtain.

Make a cozy space with pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals.

Do you have more than one box?

Connect your boxes together to make a box compound.

Other Box Art options:

Make a box car.

Make a box rocket.

Have fun and share what you make!

Jessica.mcbee@icloud.com

We would love to post pictures of other IJP forts 

in our IJP Virtual Art and Extended Day photo album:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1GiB8g272apjQ9BAA 

Extended Day Delights

Every Friday our school gets delivered boxes and boxes of pizza. Every Friday those pizza boxes get sent to recycling and our wonderful garbage removal team kindly take them to the recycling facility.  Last Friday Morah Stephanie was able to save a few in hopes that the children would find something creative to do with them.  When we looked at them this Monday we suggested many different options for the boxes.  Shaya insisted that we make a ramp.  So, with a little bit of tape and a lot of imagination we had the perfect ingredients for a marble-racing ramp.  We built a straight shoot at first then added little obstacles for the balls to go around.  Once we figured out that the obstacles were only slowing down the balls, we went back to our high speed racing and carried the activity on to Tuesday.  We love it when we find activities that have the children asking for more. 

While some were racing, others were building onto our cardboard house, twisting pipe cleaners together to make bracelets, and creating magic flower gardens out of random, flower-like toys. Last week Henia made a computer for our cardboard house, and then it went missing.  This week something great happened; we found it!  Here you can see Sammy Typing away busily

Our little builders once again created another unique structure equipped with an array of features.  Did you know that there's a spaceship out there that has an obstacle course, a house with beds, ramps, bridges, and a secret room? Yep, our students imagined all of that up themselves. 

While some like to build giant structures, others may feel more inclined to color, cut, tear, and glue. So, we turned our reading nook into an art station because sometimes it's fun to do art somewhere other than the table, as long as everyone is safe and mindful of the supplies we are using.  

Togetherness and fun go hand in hand during our extended hours. The concept of teamwork is a great social skill and will be carried with our young minds throughout their lives.  We practiced working together and cheering on our teammates using balloons, hoops, bean bags and some very simple instructions.  We were pleasantly surprised how well the children remembered the sequence of the races so well.  For example, during one race, we picked up bean bags, set each one in its own hoop, then did five jumping jacks, retrieved our bean bags then finished on our starting dot.  They all did a great job remembering all of those steps; very few needed the Morahs to remind them of the steps or walk them through.

Fine Box with Kitah Alef

 Morah Myriam brought in a box to school. Yisroel was the first to inspect it. "It's not working." - Yisroel.

 Other friends came by to see what it was. Yisroel: "It's box." The children knocked on the box.

 Avraham Chaim: "What's this?" Morah: "Should we open it?" Avraham Chaim: "Yeah!"

 Our friends tried to open the box, but it would not open. Rafi: "I want open it." Morah: "Should we unlock it?" Children: "Yeah!"

 Rafi: "I can't, I can't, I got it!" Sylvia: "I open it." The children continue knocking on the box.

 Morah: "What sound is that?" Children take turns knocking on the box.

 Rafi, Yaakov Meir, Yisroel and Avraham Chaim all take turns trying to open the latch on the box.

 Yisroel: "I open it!" Yaakov Meir stands back and watches.The box is opened only to reveal another box! Yisroel opens the second box only to find a third box. Morah: "How many boxes do we have?"

 Yisroel: "I did it." The children start standing on the boxes. Rafi jumps off the big box. Yaakov Meir takes the smaller box and places it on a chair.

 Rafi stands on top of the box and counts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Yiroel joins him in counting

 The children take turns standing and stomping on the boxes. Yiroel tries to do a hand stand off the second box.