SAISD Elementaries Extend San Angelo READS! Kindergarten Book Giveaway into STEM Activity

The kindergarten classrooms at Santa Rita Elementary are buzzing with excitement as the youngest Falcons use their creativity to turn a simple cardboard box into whatever they can imagine all part of an extension of a San Angelo READS! community-wide literacy initiative book giveaway of “A Box Can Be Many Things” by Dana Meachen Rau. 

“A Box Can Be Many Things” tells the story of a sister and her brother who find a discarded cardboard box and use their imaginations to turn it into many different things including a cave, car, and a house. After a live read aloud by Dr. Raelye Self, SAISD Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, the kinder students began a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) activity in their classroom to turn their very own cardboard box into something only they could imagine by utilizing the attributes within the SAISD Learner Profile - creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. 

“The book inspired the idea to allow our students to take a plain box and use their imaginations to make it into anything they wanted.” said Santa Rita Elementary Kindergarten Teacher Mrs. Melodi Terrill. “The hands-on project turned out to be extremely fun, engaging, and creative, which is what STEM is all about” 

The students were given the simple direction of taking the plain box and turning it into whatever they wanted. They had access to several tools to help aid their creativity such as markers, pipe cleaners, colorful feathers, stickers, craft paper and so much more. Some examples of box creations include robots, unicorns, butterflies, and aliens. Opportunities for students to integrate multiple subject areas, such as literacy and STEM, aids in their ability to apply something they have learned to real life - such as reading a book which prompts them to be creative. 

San Angelo ISD celebrates all the ways our students are smart and the methods our educators use to cultivate their individual smartness. Follow the San Angelo ISD Facebook, Twitter, and website, www.saisd.org, to stay up-to-date on San Angelo ISD. 

San Angelo READS! 

The San Angelo READS! community-wide literacy initiative was founded by San Angelo ISD in 2020 to promote and encourage reading and the SAISD Future-Ready Learner Profile attributes among SAISD students and the greater San Angelo community. The goal of the literacy initiative is to increase awareness of the importance of literacy and to inspire a love for reading. This exciting initiative is driven by statistics which show how vitally important literacy is to providing all students with the opportunities to succeed at a young age. Children and teenagers who read for pleasure on a daily or weekly basis score better on reading and writing tests than infrequent or non-readers.