Before I started teaching, I imagined Show and Tell would consist of an curious group of young children listening politely to each other and passing items around with care. This assumption fell apart fairly speedily during my first year as a teacher. Although there were times that things ran smoothly, the problems with Show and Tell were many and I found myself avoiding the experience. Even four and five year old children competed about who brought the coolest things. The event became even less spellbinding as students wanted to have a turn playing with toys, bored children fidgeted, squirmed and lost interest or upset children disrupted the class routines as they tried to keep their items a secret. Show and Tell often became a weekly advertisement for the most recent toy or fast food cafeteria freebie.
Parents also complained of the stress of trying to remember Show and Tell days, of trying to help their child choose items to show or of dealing with indecisive children who wanted to bring something that would impress their classmates. Other parents took over the task completely, choosing objects and sending them with detailed notes to be read to the class or with instructions that no one was to touch the item nor was it to get broken. There had to be a good way.
In an effort to make Show and Tell work for the students, for me, and for busy parents, I picked one day a week for the activity and scheduled it as part of my math and science time. Everyone in the class was asked to bring the same item each week. I usually brought a few extras for the few who forgot. Instead of using show and tell times to give children practice in group speaking, I scheduled separate days for them to speak in front of the class about something they had recorded in their math and science journals.
Parents received a letter explaining that the purpose of show and tell would be to extend the math, science and literacy programs by building vocabulary and practicing classification and comparative skills. The children were to have the responsibility of choosing the items, but from much narrower criteria.
The rules were: do not bring...
- anything valuable, anyone that could not be touched by all, or anyone that would upset the learner greatly if it got broken
- anything alive, as students often have pet allergies and bugs in bottles are too often neglected
- items too large - ask - can they fit in a brown paper lunch bag? (exceptions here - books, and occasionally other items)
- toys - as they caused too many problems as mentioned previously
The parents were to remind their son or daughter to choose an item from the list, but not to interfere with their child's option as long as it fit with the weekly list.
I also sent home a Show and Tell list for the whole year. This had a short note that recommend that the parents post the list on the fridge at their child's eye level, that they encourage the child to cross off each item weekly and to start looking for the next item, and that they remind the child to pack the item in their backpack the night before.
Classroom Show and Tell rules were: students were to bring the items into the class at the starting of the day, label them with name tags (children have printed name tags in their take home boxes; tape is in most centers) and put them on the Show and Tell display table. The children were always very excited on Show and Tell mornings and I scheduled some free time for them to look at the items on the table and to tell a few classmates about their items.
Sample Show and Tell list
When creating a every year Show and Tell list, put the date first, then the item to bring, graphic with a easy drawing and finally a brief record of what the class activity will be. Keep the font large. Here is a sample from my list.
- An apple (not for snack) - sorting, classifying and measurement
- Something round - math vocabulary such as edges, face, circle, circular, classifying items by a range of criteria such as size, color, material
- A leaf - sorting shapes, colors, counting points, graphing similar types, tracing leaf shapes on papers and creating charts of similar and separate leaves
- Something shiny - comparison, vocabulary - reflection, reflect, testing (with a flashlight) how each item reflects light
- Something that can be recycled - knowledge of recycling, classifying items, counting, more, fewer
- An old greeting card - determination with blocks. How many blocks long is your card? How many one inch squares cover your card? Graphing holiday images
- A shell - classify and sort by size, color, shape, observation drawings
- Something about Canada (map, flag, book, trinket) - awareness of Canadian symbols, shape of country, shapes of provinces, counting provinces, graphing occurrences of similar symbols
I ordinarily chose objects that complemented monthly themes.
Sample Show and Tell chapter with a Rock
The children place their Show and Tell rocks on the town of the carpet, and then sit down in a circle around them. I start with observation type questions. "What do you observation about the rocks? How are they the same? How are they different?
Let's sort the rocks by size. Which rock looks the largest? Which rock is the smallest? Let's make a long line." Everyone takes a turn placing his or her rock with learner or trainer suggestions to rearrange the rocks when necessary.
"Now let's sort the rocks by darker colors and lighter colors. We can put the darker rocks on this plastic mat and the lighter ones on the other mat and the striped or speckled rocks in the middle." When this activity is ended and depending on the group attentiveness span you can added investigations. Examples, "Are there more dark rocks or more light rocks? Are there fewer dull rocks or fewer shiny ones? Let's sort the rocks by which ones wobble and which ones do not wobble. "
Counting items, graphing, extending math vocabulary or practicing other math concepts are easy to concentrate into the chapter when there is a large quantity of the same object. Gear the chapter to the attentiveness span of the whole group. Children who want to continue comparing their rocks, for instance with a equilibrium scale, can do so at town time.
Next I model an observation drawing on chart paper. Draw with a ticket and talk out loud to reveal your thinking. "I noticed that there are more wobbly rocks and fewer rocks that do not wobble. I am going to draw that for my observation drawing. I will draw a line down my paper and put more wobbly rocks on one side and fewer rocks that don't wobble on the other. The rocks are in general round shapes so I will make circles. I will add dots to some to make them look speckled. I am putting itsybitsy lines beside the rocks on this side to make them look like they are moving. Now I will color in with crayons so I don't cover up my drawing lines. I will color some light grey and some dark grey. Now I need to print the word, wobbly under my wobbly rocks. What sound do I hear first and what letter do I use? What is the next sound and letter?" Do the same with the words not wobbly. Halt with a drawing of private rocks. "I am going to draw the rock I brought to show on the other page. It is black and has white stripes." Stamp the drawing with the date stamp.
The children then sit at tables and record one or more of their observations about the chapter in their science and math journals. This is an open-ended activity and results will depend on the developmental level of each child. The children take turns stamping the date on their page.
This formula worked well for the children, their parents and for me. All the children had an opening to be complex during each Show and Tell day and reviewing old, or learning new, science, math, and literacy concepts were a part of each Show and Tell experience.
Check out these pages for more information about teaching preschool and kindergarten science with Show and Tell.
