As teachers, one of the most important jobs we have, aside for teaching the content is teaching our students how to learn. We’re grooming our students into problem solvers and independent thinkers; we definitely have our work cut out for us!
How many times have you had a student hold his/her pencil up in the air, give you a blank stare and proclaim, “it’s broken!”? Yep…far too often! I always respond with, “now that’s a problem! How should we fix it!?” They usually figure it out 😉
My goal for this year was to provide my students with the tools that they needed to be able to solve problems independently and that’s when I dreamed this up:
A Learner’s Toolbox! Cute huh?!
I folded the construction paper to resemble a toolbox and then added a handle because that’s always fun. Then I stuck a little magnet tape on the inside so it would be able to fasten and filled it with little “tools” for my students.
They keep the toolboxes inside of their desks and then pull them out when they need help writing a letter, spelling a color word, writing a CVC word.
I also made some mini offices to keep in our writing station. The “tools” are exactly the same, they’re just not cut apart. I laminated the mini offices so that they would survive in the classroom;)
You can find this resource in my shop by clicking the image below!
