Taking Show and Tell to the Next Level: Mrs. P Style

On Friday, I had the privilege of spending the day with some of the province's finest kindergarten teachers at Manitoba Education's first-ever Kindergarten Share Fair. I will do another post about this amazing day, but guess what? I wasn't surprised to discover that I'm not the only kindergarten diva around--Manitoba is full of phenomenal kindergarten teachers modelling best practices in early childhood education!

During our show and tell time, I was exposed to a plethora of great ideas. This one, shared by Mrs. Tammy Pidborchynski, caught my attention as my own show and tell time is really in need of revitalization! Tammy has one student bring a show and tell item each day, and he/she shares it during morning circle time. The student places the show and tell item in a box, and other students at circle time take on the following roles.

The reader reads the following questions aloud and the show and tell person answers them. Even better if the reader uses a pointer to track the print and the whole class reads together!

 The colour person adds pieces of coloured paper to the inside of the frame to depict the colour(s) of the show and tell object. Tammy uses this opportunity to meet some K science outcomes from the colour cluster, including introducing the vocabulary "multi-coloured".

 The letter person asks, "What letter does your item begin with?" and finds it on this chart. Tammy assesses to see if the student can locate the letter in both lowercase and uppercase form. Notice how the lowercase letters are not printed in order on the chart, adding an extra level of challenge.

Lastly, students in the class use the information to guess what the object is. The music person shakes a morocco or plays another instrument when a student guesses correctly!

I really believe that these show and tell activities take the oh-so-boring traditional show and tell to the next level, infusing science, early literacy, and music, and providing some important opportunities for assessment. Thank you so much for sharing Tammy!

*Although Tammy has adapted this idea, she learned about it at a kindergarten session by Joanne Sleightholm.