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What Can You Teach In 5 Minutes?

19th November 2017

I had so many people tell me about their amazing ideas in our facebook group on how to use a Magic Bag that I decided to write a blog, 5 Minute Teaching and a Magic Bag!

Building Confidence and Self-Esteem

Magical bags can create a real buzz of excitement and mystery in the classroom. This excitement of ‘what’s in the bag’ can lead a child who doesn’t talk in front others to utter those first words because they just can’t keep the words in! How magic is that? How can it be a wrong answer when no one knows what is in there?

Understanding the World – Use Senses

Research shows us using senses is crucial to brain development. Children can use their senses as they feel/smell/listen to what is inside the bag without being able to see it!

Building Relationships

You can use the bag to send home with a child each day to put some items in from home that they enjoy playing with or are special to them. When they bring them in you can use them to start conversations and really get to know what they are interested in. This is very good for building strong relationships which are key to successful learning. Children will be so excited when it is their turn. They can use the objects to talk about the things that they are good at.

Parent Links – Mystery Reader

Some schools and settings like to have a Mystery Reader who comes to school to read a story. This could be a parent or another person from the school or setting. Let the children know there will be a mystery reader and they will need to ask them some questions to find out who they are before they read. You could also put some items that belong to the Mystery Reader in the bag so children can use their high order thinking and problem-solving skills.

Phonics and Guided Maths

A great use of a magic bag is to spice up phonics inputs and guided maths. You can put sounds or tricky words in or play guess how many marbles are in here for example. A great activity for those times when you have a spare 5 minutes. Who doesn’t love bingo?! Use the magic bag to keep the numbers in that you pull out for bingo or tricky words or sounds to add excitement to the game. See also our phonics and guided maths planning.

Literacy – Story Telling

You could put some items in it and challenge children to tell a story. You could put a character,  a setting, an enemy etc. and with repetition of this activity with varying objects, storytelling will become second nature and eventually children will be able to tell stories without props.

Literacy – Rhyming

Rhyming is the basis of literacy. You could have some props for nursery rhymes so children can guess the rhyme or even chose the rhyme.

Maths – Actual Magic!

One great magic trick is to make 2D shapes turn into 3D shapes! Makes learning shapes very memorable. How to play? Put 3D shapes such as a sphere, cube, cuboid, triangular prism into your magic bag. Then lay out 2D shapes in front of a small group of children, don’t forget you need a magic wand! Ask children to chose a shape and place it into the magic bag and wave the wand and say their chosen magical words…. Slowly look inside the bag and pull out the corresponding 3D shape for example if they have put a circle into the bag pull out a sphere! Drop the 3D shape name in and talk about the properties of the shape. Then repeat with other shapes.

Don’t get over excited so that you bore the children…

We are not suggesting you drag children away from their amazing play-based learning to see ‘what’s in the bag’ but as you can see the amazing magic bag has its uses as long as you don’t sit for too long!

 

 

  • Product Reviews
  • Site Reviews
05/31/2022
Yasmine
United Kingdom
These are beautifully made and really useful for extending my more able.
05/28/2022
Emma B.
United Kingdom
This training was fantastic. Really made me think and reflect on ways to improve. Just brilliantly honest and straight to the point.
05/19/2022
Charlotte K.
United Kingdom
This is great we have printed it out and we use daily for the Nursery children for a short Phonics activity. It has saved me loads of time and is really well thought out and each activity is clearly explained so the staff know what to do. Each time they teach Phonics they are becoming more...This is great we have printed it out and we use daily for the Nursery children for a short Phonics activity. It has saved me loads of time and is really well thought out and each activity is clearly explained so the staff know what to do. Each time they teach Phonics they are becoming more confident with presenting.
05/08/2022
Miss G.
United Kingdom
This is so helpful to give to parents. A great help. Thanks
05/01/2022
Mary
United Kingdom
This is so amazing thank you so much for making plans appropriate for Early Years!
03/14/2022
jane
United Kingdom
Very please with my purchase, brilliant phonics activities.
01/03/2022
amy
United Kingdom
Really helpful planning - good ideas.
11/23/2021
Jill.R
United Kingdom
Great Book, really helpful phonics planning. Would definitely recommend when teaching phonics to children.
09/20/2021
Mrs C.
United Kingdom
Highly recommend this informative phonics book. Everything you need to know about phase 1 and explained in good detail.
08/06/2021
Jayne
United Kingdom
This was absolutely brilliant, thank you x
04/30/2021
Candela M.
United Kingdom
I love this! Thank you very much, I was wondering if there was an editable version for this please? Does it have all of the development matters objectives?
10/22/2020
Mrs C.
United Kingdom
gREAT PLANNING FOR DIWALI, ESPECIALLY THE MUSIC THAT WE CAN PLAY DURING OUR PE LESSON OR PLAY WHILST WE MAKE OUR RANGOLI PATTERNS OR DIVAS. THANK YOU , A GREAT RESOURCE.
10/02/2020
Claire H.
United Kingdom
This training is superb! Such an important message that all schools need to hear with regards to behaviour management! The science of how the brain works really helps to show how crucial it is to build strong nurturing relationships and how we as adults need to self regulate before we can support...This training is superb! Such an important message that all schools need to hear with regards to behaviour management! The science of how the brain works really helps to show how crucial it is to build strong nurturing relationships and how we as adults need to self regulate before we can support children to do the same. Some powerful thought provoking messages about how we need to respond to children's emotions and behaviours and some great tips to try to support children's wellbeing. Thank you for this fabulous training.
09/16/2020
Mary S.
United Kingdom
I am an NQT and in Reception for the first time, this is so helpful for me to teach my children the basics and ease gently into phonics to ensure all of my children are ready before we start phase 2. Thank you so much for making my life easier!
08/26/2020
Debbie
United Kingdom
This PPT is great. Could you give me an idea of the tune to the goodbye song please. Thank you, Debbie
08/25/2020
Jill
United Kingdom
Great resource
03/27/2020
Jorgia H.
United Kingdom
I loved this and enjoyed making something for the birds in the garden. We watched them eat it and used the bird spotting sheet to see which type of birds they are.
03/11/2020
Jane
United Kingdom
This is a really helpful display.
03/07/2020
Claire
United Kingdom
Thank you for creating these. They look perfect for exploring pattern and loose parts play. I will be printing these to use in my class asap. I love the patterns use loose parts as well as natural resources too!
03/06/2020
Lisa
Hong Kong SAR China
Great sound mat. good detail
03/05/2020
Claire
United Kingdom
These statements are fab for using on display and save teachers so much time! I will be printing these and getting them up in my new displays asap!
01/17/2020
Rebecca
Spain
Lovely handout to give to parents , every parent should read this ! Thanks.
12/13/2019
Bonnie
United Kingdom
I love these cards, lovely pictures and great for my children to use with sentence writing.
11/28/2019
Zoe.H
United Kingdom
Thanks. Going to use these cards today.
11/15/2019
Rachel
United Kingdom
Thanks for creating this Bingo resource. Any plans to create more suffix word resources ?
10/23/2019
jenny
Japan
Just download, got some great planning ideas. Thanks.
10/01/2019
Sara-Jayne
These are an excellent resource, as you can adapt for what you need in your setting. thank you.
08/28/2019
Miss G.
These are great, just what I've been looking for.
08/26/2019
Heather R.
would highly recommend this resource to any year 1 teachers. It's got everything you need.
08/26/2019
Zoe M.
Just printed this off, thanks - just what I was looking for.
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