A brown paper package tied up with string? Check! It’s up to you and your partner, however, to guess what’s INSIDE the package!

We recommend reading Send It! by Don Carter (Roaring Brook Press, 2003). On Monday, a boy wraps, tapes, addresses, and mails a special package. Off it goes, traveling through the remaining days of the week (and from truck to boat to plane to train) until it arrives Sunday, just in time for the big birthday party!

You’ll need:

• A number of brown cardboard boxes, different sizes
• A number of objects to go inside the boxes
• Package labels to decorate (optional)

This project is very simple! Cut the top or back off a number of boxes. Put objects inside the boxes, but don’t let the story time kids or grown-ups see what the objects are.

Next, have kids partner up with another kid or a grown up. Ask the kids to reach inside the box and describe what they feel to their partners without actually saying the name of the object. The partner has to make the best guess as to what’s inside the box. Continue the game with multiple boxes.

If you’d like to add a little craft project to the story time, we found these old package labels in the office supply cabinet and used markers to decorate them. Or you can fashion your own using card stock, a hole punch, and string.