Tracing Fun

1. Provide each student with a plastic box frame, Crayola Construction Paper Crayons and several pieces of construction paper. Ask students to remove the cardboard insert from the plastic box.
2. Invite students to decorate the sides of the cardboard insert with Crayola® Construction Paper. Trace the sides of the cardboard insert on different colors of construction paper. Cut out the construction paper with Crayola® Scissors and attach to the sides of the cardboard insert with a Crayola® Glue Stick.
3. Have students look around their classroom and find something they might want to trace. Students place that figure or shape, trimmed to fit the side of the plastic box frame, inside the box. This could be a geometric shape, letter formations currently under study, animal outlines, etc.
4. Students use Crayola® Dry-Erase Crayons to trace and color pictures, practice writing letters, math facts, or drawing shapes. When they are finished, display it or wipe it off with the E-Z Erase Mitt and do it again. Paper towels can be used in place of the E-Z Erase Mitt.

LA: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners, about grade level topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

After a read-aloud experience, students use their plastic box frame and Crayola Dry Erase Crayons to create a scene depicted in the story. Students should be prepared to discuss their artworks and connections to the story.

After reading a math expression, such as 2 goldfish + 3 goldfish, to students orally, ask each to illustrate the equation using Crayola Dry Erase Crayons and their plastic boxes. Then students arrive at a solution, 5 goldfish. This can also be used as an introduction to the subtraction algorithm.

When introducing or reviewing new vocabulary words, or parts of words such as prefixes, students listen to a term orally and identify the focus part of the word. For example, when studying suffixes, the word read could be "playing." Students write the suffix "ing" on their plastic boxes. Reverse this process. The instructor writes a consonant digraph such as "ch" on the whiteboard. Students respond by writing a word that correctly contains that digraph, such as "chew" or "choose" on their boxes.

Students may also engage in this activities using a small white board and Crayola Dry Erase Markers.