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Sunday 9 March 2014

Bright Ideas - More than one way to Show and Tell




Welcome to another Bright Ideas Blog Hop!  

Oral language is an important development in children and a traditional way it has been supported in the classroom is through the good old Show and Tell, I am not ashamed to admit that I think Show and Tell is a snooze fest and there are better ways to do it.  Here are some examples.

1. Mystery bag


I have used this in a variety of grade levels and kiddos eat it up!  Essentially it works like this.  I have about 5 cloth drawstring bags ( I made mine but you could easily recycle some you already have) The kiddos take the bag home the day before their rostered day for Show and Tell and put something in the bag.  There is also a sheet in there for them to write down 3-5 clues about there object.  I encourage the parents to talk to their child about what clues they could give.  When they come into school, they give their clues and the other students are allowed to guess, once the guess is done the child can then give extra information.
To keep things interesting I will often send home a list to the parents with topics we will be discussing in the classroom each week, this way the object in the Mystery bag can be used to generate whole classroom discussion as well.

PS You can also make a mystery bag from a pillowcase.

2.  The Topic book

A Topic book is really just a scrap book that on each page has a different topic.  Children can take the Topic Book home and then add information to a page of their choice through drawing, writing, adding photographs whatever they think they can add to talk about a particular topic.  You could have a few Topic books going home or just roster one per child per day, your choice.

3.  Whole class Show and Tell.

This method has Show and Tell on one day for all students.  Students sit in two concentric circles so that each student is facing another student (if you have one student leftover you can group a couple of students).
Choose one circle that will be moving in a clockwise direction, then put a time limit on how long each child gets to talk ( you have to or it takes forever!!!) This method means that one half of the class gets to share with multiple students in a semi one on one fashion. Again you can make this free choice or set a topic for each week.  In our class we relate it to our unit that we are investigating.

I hope this has given you at least one more interesting way to do show and tell without falling asleep!  Now head over to Mrs Pauley's Kindergarten to gather some fabulous ideas on displaying anchor charts,

Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten

or just click on one of the links below to find more Bright Ideas by grade level.






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