WhoÕs in the Bag?

 

Sherryl Wolff                                                                          Jennifer Hemmesch

Professional School Counselor                                               MSUM Intern 2001-2002

Mankato West High School                                                    Mankato West High School

Mankato Minnesota                                                               Mankato Minnesota

 

Description of Lesson:

WhoÕs in the Bag? is a lesson developed by Lorna Hockett at Waldport Elementary School, in Waldport OR.  The lesson is appropriate to use with middle school students.  Many students do not know how to develop relationships.  Their negative social attitudes and low self-esteem hinder interaction.

 

Purpose: 

Use this exercise in the beginning of the year or group activities for the purpose of introducing the teacher and students to one another.

 

Objectives:

  1. To express personal characteristics with items from home.
  2. To introduce ourselves to one another.

 

Resources/Materials:

Students will provide the ten items and their own shopping bag.  Teachers will need to remind students several times to bring in their bags.  This works best with 100% participation.  Instruct student not to bring in valuable items.

 

Activities and Procedures:

Ask each student to bring an unmarked grocery bad from home and give it to the teacher.  The bag is to contain three or four items from the studentÕs home that Òsay something about who the student it.Ó  During the class period the teacher empties one bad at a time before the class.  The students are to react to the contents of the bag before guessing the identity of the owner.  As the contents of each bad are revealed, students should discuss the following questions:

  1. Was the bag brought by a boy or a girl?  How can you tell?
  2. What kinds of activities does this person enjoy?
  3. Why do you think she/he chose the items that are in the bag?
  4. What one item in the bad do you think she/he is especially proud of?

 

By the time the questions are discussed, the students will probably be calling out the name of the suspected bag filler.  Before having the person identify themselves it is fun to say ÒO.K. on the count of three, everybody point to the person whom you think belongs to this bag!Ó  When arms are pointed in all directions, a lively discussion can follow.

 

Tying it all Together:

Spend a few minutes at the end of the class processing the exercise by asking the following questions:

  1. Through the items in your bag, what were you saying about yourself?
  2. How did you feel when the contents of your bag were revealed?
  3. What did you learn about others by studying the contents of their bags?
  4. Did you find it difficult to guess correctly?  Why?
  5. What did you learn about yourself from this exercise?

 

 

Connections to Related Standards, Competencies, and Domains:

            WhoÕs in the Bag directly relates to Minnesota Graduation Standards Number 10 (Decision-Making Skills).  The students are faced with making a decision as to what to put in their bag.  The objects in the bag represent who the person is.

            The activity relates to the Personal/Social and Educational domains of the Minnesota School CounselorsÕ Model of Developmental Guidance and Counseling.  The activity can be related to the Personal/Social domain since the students learn more about who they are as individuals.  Also it is related to the Educational domain since students learn more about other students in the class and how they can positively interact with other studentsÕ in their class.

            Additionally, the activity relates to the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee Standards for middle/junior high schools the development of self-knowledge.  The students learn more about other students in their class and also who they are as individuals.  They need to choose objects that represent them to put in the bag.

 

References and Resources:

 

http://www.col-ed.org/cur/misc/misc05.txt