Focus:
The children will enhance their vocabulary by using descriptive words and phrases to describe objects that are in a “touchy-feely” box.

Materials:
• Touchy-feely box. This is a box in which the student places his/her hand into an opening and attempts to identify the object they grab without actually seeing the object. You can make one of these boxes by covering a small box (shoe box, hatbox, Quaker oats container, etc.) with decorative paper. Then cut a hole in the box so that the students can reach into the box easily.

• Place various forest-related items into the box (fir cones, different kinds of leaves, conifer needles, twigs, bark etc.). You may want to choose a “theme” and have only different leaf samples or only cone samples, etc.

Procedure:
This activity works well as a station. Have a student place their hand into the box, grasp an object, and describe it using specific descriptive words or phrases. (E.g. “It feels like a long toothpick.” Or, “I feel two very rough ridges.”)

After they describe their object, have them take it out of the box and show it to the class (or their group if it’s a station activity) and see if anyone else can think of additional descriptive phrases.