And the Winner is........

Wow! I am totally blown away by all the great ideas for the Altoids tins!! It was SO hard to pick just ONE winner! But (drumroll, please) the winner is........

 Wild About Kindergarten! You can read about her idea, and all of the other fantastic Altoids tins ideas, here. Also, here are a couple of the ideas that I had for their use:

Categorizing Boxes:  Each box contains a set of three “alike” things (either the small items OR pictures) and one thing that is different. Students choose a box, then decide which thing doesn’t belong. If done at the beginning of kindergarten, students TELL a buddy why it doesn’t belong. If done at the END of kindergarten, OR the beginning of first grade, students would then WRITE about WHY that thing doesn’t belong. The explanation is the key to critical thinking in this activity. To view my original post on categorizing, click here.

Name Game: (middle of the year for kinder, beginning of the year for first grade) Each student gets a copy of their name to cut apart into letter strips. The letter strips go into individual, unmarked tins.  In a literacy center, students choose a box and arrange the letters in the box to make a classmate’s name. They can use the “Friends” word wall to help them make names. For accountability, you could add a recording sheet. Students would choose a certain number of tins (I would say 5) and record those names on the sheet.