Big Reading Boxes
~ Mary Bencini

We have large cardboard boxes lying around the classroom... the kind that appliances come in. Kids LOVE to sit in those boxes and read. We had a few flashlights, and sometimes one or two kids would go inside the box with a flashlight and close it up. I once read an article written by a teacher. She told how her kids decorated a big appliance box for a reading space. They called it a Time Travel Machine. They put Christmas tree lights and buttons on the outside of the box. Whenever you read in the box, you would go to the time and place of the book you were reading. She said the kids said it really helped them visualize and feel what they were reading. I always thought that was a great idea, but I have never tried it in my classroom.