Boxes can be used in a huge range of activities, so why not ask parents and carers to bring them to your setting rather than throwing them away?
Gathering resources
* Start a box collection by displaying a notice asking parents and carers to donate boxes of varying shapes and sizes.
* Ask hypermarket staff for large cartons used for goods such as freezers.
In store
* Store pens and pencils in the graphics area in small boxes covered with brightly coloured contact adhesive. Cut the front off cereal boxes and seal the sides to form shallow trays for paper storage.
* Arrange shallow boxes in a row in the creative area and fill with small collage materials, such as fabric scraps and wool, so the children can make their own choices. Similarly, house natural materials, such as shells, seeds, stones and twigs in, for example, the sand area.
* Create theme boxes for imaginary play with resources related to role-play scenarios or favourite stories. Label these clearly and encourage children to request them freely.
* Store scientific resources and books in investigation boxes labelled, for example, 'colour', 'light' or 'minibeasts'. Use to enhance topic-based activities or to follow children's individual interests.
* Set up some outdoor boxes to extend cross-curricular learning, for example, by exploring weather, mark-making or number games.
One to ten
* Buy sets of coloured boxes that fit easily inside one another. Arrange them in sequence or build towers with them.
* Make three beds from boxes of different sizes and use them with teddy bears to tell the story of the three bears.
* Number identical boxes from 1 to 5, or 1 to 10, and invite the children to fill them with the corresponding number of small objects.
* Create a row of ten houses from boxes covered in white paper. Draw windows and doors on the front and number the doors from 1 to 10. Invite the children to arrange them in the correct order. Extend the activity to include garages and cars.
* Make block graphs, for example, of the children's favourite foods, by attaching mini cereal boxes to a display board divided into columns. Spend time discussing the results of your survey.
* Encourage children to reconstruct flattened boxes to their original three-dimensional shape using tape.
Musical boxes
* Invite parents to lend musical boxes for a special display. Emphasise to the children that they must only explore the boxes with an adult. Talk about how the boxes work and the sounds they make.
* Help the children to make instruments. Make drums from large upturned boxes and encourage the children to beat the surface with a hand or stick.
Fill small boxes with dry materials, such as rice or sand, and seal tightly to form shakers.
Be creative
* Develop interest in using boxes for imaginary play by reading appropriate stories such as Harry's Box by Angela McAllister (Bloomsbury, 5.99) or Jack in a Box by Julia Jarman (Collins, 5.99).
* Encourage the children to create their own role-play resources from boxes, such as cameras, post-office parcels, picnic baskets and pet cages.
* Make hats by cutting across cereal boxes to form wide strips. Adjust the strips to fit individual heads by cutting and sticking and invite the children to decorate them using collage materials. Create hats for a specific theme, for example, by adding a white paper bag shape to a white strip to make a chef's hat.
* Seal empty cereal and food boxes with tape for use in a shop or to stock cupboards in the home area.
* Provide large packing cases and blankets for the children to create dens.
* Use the large sides of cereal boxes to form thick bases for collage, masks and mark-making activities.
* Join several large open boxes to form a train for toys and children to travel in.
It's a small world
* Wallpaper the inside of shoe boxes to create rooms to make a doll's house.
* Create a small-world environment in a shoe box. For example, for an underwater scene, paint the inside of a box blue, glue sand and shells to the base and suspend tissue seaweed from the top with thread. Develop other scenarios, such as a magic forest.
* Use shoe boxes to build small-world houses and shops, a zoo with cages or a farm with barns.
Physical skills
* Provide simple sewing boxes for the children to use individually under supervision. For example, provide open-weave fabric pieces, thick needles threaded with wool and scissors.
* Encourage the children to throw bean bags into large boxes or roll balls through holes cut in the side of boxes.