Not baskets, but boxes

The UU church in Plano, Texas uses plastic boxes in their classrooms instead of open baskets. I acquired some plastic boxes to try this out.

This is what I like about them:

• They are easy to clean
• They are easy to label
• They stack neatly and compactly on the shelf
• They are easy to transport around the room/church
• They close up, which might help all the pieces from any one story stay together
• They are inexpensive and easy to find at any big box store
• They seem very durable

 This is what I like about baskets:

• They are visually attractive individually and laid out side by side on the shelves
• They are made from natural materials
• They are open, inviting of interaction
• They come in many sizes, and being open on top, fit many materials without squishing
• If you don't insist that all your baskets match, they are inexpensive and easy to find at the thrift store

Here was my first run at using a plastic box. My main reason for wanting to try this was that labeling the baskets and keeping pieces together was a challenge this year. Also, the teachers suspected that the children did not interact much with the stories because they didn't remember which was which. I'm not sure we're going to want to switch over all the baskets, but I was thinking it might work to group the stories in baskets and plastic boxes. In this case, the "How Stories Began" story, which is listed as a Source story--Wonder and Awe--could be one of several Source stories all kept in plastic boxes and grouped together on one shelf, at least while we try out this new way of storing and organizing stories.