Love this idea Luanne! We are doing a sound effect drama this month for Jesus Feeds 5000 and this would be great to incorporate... Gonna go order me some white boards!

Jaymie

OR, use them in any workshop as "Risk Bubbles."  From the concept of "Risk Pads" from Chick Moorman, my favorite educator/parenting guru. (Yes, that's really his first name. And he is a hoot!)

Chick's "Risk Pads" can be any piece of scrap paper, however I like the idea of being able to wipe it away if you want to change your mind. It's basically giving an object a special name (in our case a "risk bubble") and "legitimizes" using this resource to "take a risk" -- to attempt to answer a question and not be really sure about the answer.

For example, you say: 

I'm going to pose a question. I want you to write your answer on your risk bubble. No hands in the air. If you are done writing before I call on anyone, see if you can expand on your answer.

Then ask your question.... and say...

Please keep your answer to yourself. Silently record it on your risk bubble. No hands in the air.

According to Chick... This technique creates the following: (I'm quoting his words here.)

• The need to be first with a hand in the air was eliminated, discouraging quick, surface-level responses.
• Early finishers were encouraged to think more deeply.
• All students were allowed thinking time.
• Most students recorded an answer and had something to share if called on.
• With a written answer in front of them, more students were likely to verbally share an answer.
• If a student chose not to volunteer, at least he or she had an answer to compare with the others that were given.

That's a good find, Luanne. I like "props" that encourage kids to talk/respond.

For Xmas, one of our kids bought us the new game, "Skribbleheads." (You are dealt a word that you must draw  to a board that is fixed to your forehead via a headband. It's hilarious seeing how bad the drawings are. 

Two possible ideas about how to use such:

(1) So I'm thinking about how you could fix that BUBBLE erase board to a head band so that kids could wear what they were thinking.

(2) I suppose you could "game it" too by having the teacher write something on the board and hand it to the student to wear --without the student being able to see what's on their board, and they must guess by asking questions.  Categories:  Person, place, thing, meaning, part of a verse. The thing I like about this game idea is that the rest of the students get the board content on everybody's forehead seared into their memory.   Variation, split into teams and give each team 3 boards to complete. They then give the boards to the other team to wear, and try to figure out.   

Hmmmmm.......
After reading/studying a passage, ....you could have different parts of the scripture passage written on everyone's foreheads (so that you couldn't see your own) and then you must mill around to ask questions about your verse, and then the group must arrange itself in the correct order of verses. hmmmmmm....