Teacher Discussion Forums

I simply cut out a bunch of pictures from magazines, pasted them to plain white backing, and laminated them. They're just any pictures that look interesting. (National Geographic has great pictures for this use!) I can use them for all manner of activities.

More advanced kids can make up stories (verbally or in writing) about the pictures. You can ask kids questions about the pictures, or have them ask each other questions.

One of my favorite games to play with the pictures is a scavenger hunt. I spread the pictures out on a table. Each student gets a list of what they're looking for based on current vocabulary, perhaps shapes, clothing, actions, etc.

The students bring me the pictures and their lists. They have to make a sentence about what they were looking for. For example, if they had to find a triangle, they can just say "It is a triangle." They get one point for finding a triangle correctly, and another point if they made no mistakes in the sentence.

More advanced students may have to make more advanced sentences to get points, such as "The man is wearing a jacket." or "The boy is in front of the door."

When the time is up, I tally up the points to determine the winner.

interesting idea. easy to get

The pictures can generate some interesting conversations. Once a student had a question about a picture of Tom Hanks in "Castaway":

STUDENT: Teacher, he all alone on island, many years, no people, yes?
ME: Yes.
STUDENT: Where he get hair permed?

I got to explain to the class that a lot of white people just have curly hair. They found this amazing.

My baby granddaughter's visit also prompted some questioning by a committee of little ones:

STUDENT SPOKESMAN: Teacher, baby in mommy's stomach, yes?
ME: Yes.
SS: What mommy do so baby come out with blue eyes?

They would NOT accept "Some babies just have blue eyes" for an answer. I finally had to tell them, "She finds a daddy with blue eyes." Fortunately, that satisfied them and they didn't press for how the blue-eyed daddy made the baby come out with blue eyes!