These are a few random things I used in my classes...
Learning about the pre-industrial women's economy meant each student reaching into a drawstring bag to pull a little piece of paper with a random household item on it. Then they had to make their way through the classroom setting up trades to try to get everything they would need for their household. However, since illiteracy could be common at that point in our history the student's could not write down anyone's name or what/how much they traded...they had to try to remember it all. After they were done attempting to trade for a few minutes they went back to their desks to write what they could remember...the most anyone wrote was eight trades.
The red yarn helped teach Weber's Iron Cage of Bureaucracy. We had to toss the ball around the classroom as we itemized the various steps it can take to get one task accomplished in a bureaucracy. We went through the steps a parent/student/teacher have to accomplish when there is an absence from school. It was seven different steps just to have an excused absence.
Then silly slang flash cards to analyze the socialization process in regards to language usage...how words are funny, overused, outdated, inappropriate and how they can shape our understanding of the world.
Have I mentioned I have the best job ever?
