Building Background Activity | Parents & Teachers
  







  












  
  



  


    
    
     

    

		

			

				

		

        
        
                  

                                      
Building Background Activity

                                                          
 
        
        

          


  
  
  
  

    
Activity One: All About Play!
The purpose of this activity is to activate students’ background knowledge on playfulness. 


1. Tell your students that they are going to participate in a “Think-Pair-Share” activity. A “Think-Pair-Share” activity is designed to facilitate class discussion by allowing students a time for individual reflection, peer interactions, and a whole-class activity. The first step is to ask your students to respond in writing to the following prompt:


    

  • What toys do kids like to play with?
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 The next step is to divide the class into pairs and ask the students to discuss their responses to the prompt.


 


The final step is a whole-class discussion. Ask for volunteers to share their responses with the entire class.


 


Create a class list composed of students’ responses to the prompt. Post the list as a shared resource for the remainder of the lesson activities.


 


2. As a class, watch the PBS KIDS Design Squad video clip that shows a toy engineer designing a product at http://pbskids.org/designsquad. When you are finished, ask the students what kinds of toys they think might be fun to design. Record their responses and post the list shared resource for the remainder of the lesson activities.