Thinking inside the box

Yesterday we had a seminar regarding the use of story boxes in English/literacy.  To be honest, I had forgotten all about them until the session, let alone what a powerful resource they can be!  Our tutor asked us if any of us had ever used them before and I thought of loads of occasions that I had either used them or seen them used in my last school.

The first time I ever saw one was when my class teacher used one when meeting her new class on Transition Day.  She had created a story box of her life and had a number of personal objects in it that she was able to pass around the children whilst telling them about her.  Things like a photo of her husband, a favourite childhood toy, a souvenir from a favourite holiday were really enjoyed by the children, it clearly helped the teacher remember all the things that she had wanted to tell the children and it was certainly more interesting and visually stimulating than my unplanned, on-the-spot monologue that immediately followed...

I have also seen story boxes used in the foundation stage, when the children were learning the earlier stages of their phonics.  I remember the class teacher there had placed a number of objects into a box (decorated to look like a postbox) that began with the letters, S,A,T,P,I & N: the first stage of teaching Jolly Phonics - I have pasted the stages below for anyone that is interested.  During a session on the carpet, the children took it in turns to remove an item from the box and then say the word, identify the first sound and then perform the sound with the appropriate action to the rest of the group.  The group would then mirror the  sound and action.

Jolly Phonics Stages:
1. s a t p i n
2. c k e h r m d
3. g o u l f b
4. ai j oa ie ee or
5. z w ng v oo oo
6. y x ch sh th th
7. qu ou oi ue er ar          

When we were discussing our experiences of working with story boxes, I decided to tell the group about a time when my year six class made their own story boxes, story mapping Philip Pullman's Clockwork:

The task was completed during a number of art lessons, but the curriculum links are glaringly obvious and it allowed the children to develop their comprehension of the story by looking at the finer detail of the descriptions, the chronology and the characters and settings within the book.  I don't want to go into too much detail, because you all NEED to read the story, but it was a fantastic exercise to do with the children, not to mention the best boxes could even be kept for use with the following year's year six class.

While I have not yet decided if I will be doing English for my Core Assignment 1, story boxes are definitely something that I will be taking into my own classroom...