BRING AND BRAG OR SHOW AND SHARE?

One of the enduring rituals in early childhood has been sharing time. Most children love to be the center of attention and talk in front of their friends. However, you can reinforce important speaking and listening standards with some of these ideas.

Show and Share 
Instead of “bring and brag,” focus show and tell on a specific theme you are studying, such as a letter, science concept, shape, etc.
                                    
Podium
Provide a child-size podium (old music stand) for children to stand behind when they speak.
                                                                             
*Let children stand on a giant block to speak.

Visualize
Have children close their eyes as friends take turns sharing. Can everyone remember one thing at the end of sharing time?

Clues
Ask children to come up with three clues about what they have brought from home. (Parents could write these for young students.) After giving the clues, friends try and guess what it is.

Questions
Let the class ask 20 questions about show and tell items. Tally their answers on the board.

*The person sharing can make three statements about what they have brought. The class then gets to ask them three questions about it.Show What You Know
Try “show what you know” where children can demonstrate what they have learned about a theme. They could do an art project, make up a song, do a skit, make a video, etc.

Hint! Designate a special shelf or table in your classroom where students can place their show and tell objects for friends to look at later in the day.

Specific Time
Assign students different days of the week for sharing time or designate one day for show and tell.


Here are a few other ideas I found when I searched old blogs.

Rhyme Bag (Hieke Klapwyk)
Send home a brown “rhyme” bag with each student and ask them to fill the bag with two items that rhyme. At show and tell time, each student removes one item from their bag. Classmates must guess what the second item in the bag is by naming objects that rhyme.  

                                                                     

Show and Tell Challenge(Maribel Mohr)
Use gift bags and staple a note with a challenge, such as a letter, three dimensional shape, numeral, etc. Pass out the bags to the students at the beginning of the day. At the end of the day they can share what they've found.
*You could also send these bags home for the children to do with their parents.