Teaching value

I saw a great picture on Pinterest which inspired me to try something this week with my second grade classes.  It worked amazingly well.  We learned about the concept of value.  We talked about how colors can have lighter and darker versions.  I asked them what one item everyone in the room had that was the same color, but each of us had a different value of.  Within a few guesses, someone always says, "Our Skin."  So we made a human value scale.  I had the kids do all of the problem solving themselves, trying to line up the class from dark to light.  We used their arms as the location to compare.  It was great seeing them test arms and them decide whether each person was in the right place of needed to move left of right to be in value order.  When it was all in order I photographed each class. Since the students took ownership of creating the scale and since they can remember this activity just by looking at their arms, they have retained the information so much better than activities I have done in the past.