Inferencing - The Bag Activity

A---The Bag Activity

Purpose: To teach inferencing by giving clues from a bag and having students figure out who the bag belongs to.

The teacher shows the students a bag with miscellaneous contents inside. Then, one by one, they start to look at the items in the bag. She makes sure that the students know what each item is and they brainstorm what the items could be used for or what types of people use such items. After all the items have been seen, the teacher sends the students back to their desks to write about who the bag belongs to.

In this particular activity, the bag was found outside of the school and is an orange Columbia College bag that looked more like a purse. Inside we found: coffee, a granola bar, glasses, a notebook/journal,  a seashell, colored clicker ink pens, and a rock.

B---My inference is that the bag belongs to a female teacher, one that might teach Science, possibly Earth Science. She could be found squinting, since her glasses are in the bag.

C---This would be a great activity for writing, having the students go back to their desks to write their inference. I could see this activity also being used for making a book come "alive". Maybe a pre-activity that you could do to introduce the book and the the students would have to figure out what the story is about and maybe even come up with what they think the title will be based on what they found in the bag. I also think you could use it for many different subjects; introducing lessons, using the five senses or learning more about historical figures and places.

This is a great activity to have in your teacher tool box and it is sure to be a hit with the students as well!