Materials for the lesson

A leaflet of a museum that students recently visited containing a building plan and photos of the most precious objects.

A  road map of the area where the museum is located

A piece of textile or paper (width 1m)

Ordinary carnival accessories such as mustache, wig, glasses, ties… The teacher can find some in school material.

Layout of the classroom

Free space is necessary. Furniture is moved to the walls apart from 3 desks and some chairs.

Phase 1

During a school visit to a museum, the students are asked to focus their attention on the museum building as well as the exhibits. A plan of the building is also given and students are invited to find in different rooms  certain precious exhibits. For example: a statue, a tool, a jewel  or a pot.

Phase 2

The teacher starts  the lesson telling a short story:

“A group of thieves plans to steal a precious object from the museum that the class recently visited.

Unfortunately for the thieves, two children, living in the next apartment, saw suspicious moves and called their friends for help. Will they be able to prevent  the theft of the precious object from the museum?”

The class is divided into 3 groups: Thieves, Children and   Police agents.

One desk serves as a bureau for the Police Agents and it is placed with some chairs, in a corner of the classroom.

Two desks or chairs one upon the other serve as apartment divider. A piece of textile or paper, large sized, covers the desks or chairs. Some small holes are opened  so children can secretly see through.

Each Thief choses  a different accessory and puts it on.

A leaflet of the museum with the building plan, a road map of the area where the museum is located and a list of questions are distributed to Thieves. All this material will  help them  describe the museum and better organize the action.

Finally, the Thieves secretly decide which object  to steal. Neither the Children nor the Teacher or the Police Agents know the identity of the object.

Phase 3

With teacher’s signal, the Thieves, in their apartment, start the conversation while the Children, behind the divider, listen secretly to them  trying to see through the small holes of the paper or textile. During the conversation, the Thieves never reveal which object they intend to  steal. They always mention it as  the ‘Thing’.

The Thieves describe in details the museum outside and inside, guided by a list of questions.

Example of questions:

• Where is the museum?

• How is the building outside?

• How is the building inside?

• How many and which rooms does it have?

• What kind of objects are there in this museum?

• Who works in this museum?

• What emotions or thoughts does the building cause?

With teacher’s signal, the action stops.

Phase 4

With teacher’s signal, Children’s group goes to Police Station and report the plans of the Thieves next door.

For example:

“The man wearing a red tie  asked how was the building.” or

“The red-haired woman said that the ‘Thing’ is exhibited in room A, on first floor, besides the shop.”

Both Children  and Police agents   make assumptions about the identity of the ‘Thing’.

With teacher’s signal, the action stops.

 The Thieves reveal the ‘Thing’ and the assumptions are validated if all the information is clearly stated by the Thieves and reported intact without omissions or distortions by the Children.

Phase 5

Teacher and all groups discuss about what they learnt, how they learnt, what they liked or disliked. At the end, they could imagine, write  or play the end of the story.