Me-In-A-Bag

At the beginning of the school year, I take the first week to focus on building relationships.  The students need to get to know me and the other students, and I need to get to know them.  Even if I have worked with a student before, I take the time to rebuild the relationship.  I strongly believe this is key to a successful year!
I wanted a way for my students to shared items of interest, but I needed to make it visual.  So I came up with the idea of "Me-In-A-Bag".  Come to find out many others have also had this idea (hey...great minds think alike).  I found a sweet little poem from HomeSpeechHome to attach to baggies that I sent home with each student that explained the activity.  I gave verbal instructions that they could put real items in the bag, take pictures of items, or write the words of the items.  I also assured the students that they would get these items back...I wasn't going to keep their special items (this was a common question!)
The students all arrived with their items and shared with their groups.  It was such a great opportunity to get to know each other, but also a wonderful time for me to get to observe their speech and language skills in more of a conversational manner.
Let me know if you try this with your students or your children!

Want to know what I put in my bag?  Check out below...

A picture of my family: Pretty self explanatory.  I think they are everything!
A K-Cup of Peet's Coffee: I love coffee...oh yes I do!
A school bus picture:  This is one of the first items I helped to make when I started working as a SLP.  The bus goes with a book that I used daily when I started working with the preschool population.  It represents my love for being a SLP.
Goldfish crackers:  I love to snack, and Goldfish crackers are the ultimate snack item.
A picture of a jumprope:  I was on a jumprope team!  Turns out, jumping rope is similar to riding a bike.  I might not be as fast or able to do all the tricks, BUT I can still jump!
What would you put in your bag?