When I was young I LOVED show and tell. I would bring in all sorts of nonsense.
I loved to “present” to everyone. It’s still one of my favorite childhood pastimes.
Of course there would always be those few kids who ruined it for everyone, and left the teacher scrambling to cover.
Let’s talk show and tell…
Redditor Salmonerd_ wanted to hear from educators out there about the times students made show and tell weird.
They asked :
“Teachers, what’s the worst thing a kid brought for show and tell?”
Let’s hear all about it…
Diamond in the rough…
“When I was in elementary school there was a kid from a different class who brought his mom’s diamond engagement ring to show and tell.”
“I know this because I found a Diamond engagement ring in the wood chips under the swing set.”
“I turned it in and later got a $10 reward, dumb 7 year old me probably should have pawned it!!” ~ GoBuffaloes
MOOOOOO!!!
“In 5th grade, we were studying human anatomy.”
“When we got to the eyes, a kid brought in a bag full of cow’s eyes. His dad worked in a slaughterhouse. Teacher was horrified.”
“I should add that my classmate brought them in, unannounced. The teacher had no plans for dissection, was going to show us a filmstrip about eyes or something.”
“I should add that the teacher put them in the staff refrigerator for the day (this was in the Arizona heat).”
” Afterwards, when teacher returned the bag of eyes to my classmate, he took them home, and on the walk home, gave them out to any kid who wanted one.”
“I’ll leave all that to your imagination.” ~ alvinathequeena
The Dead
“Wasn’t show and tell but once during morning break while I was a student teacher, two 6 year olds came to find the class teacher in the staff room.”
“They had something to show her.”
“She came back with pictures, these boys had found half a dead and decomposed hedgehog and decided to pick it up and put it on her desk.”
“Needless to say hands were thoroughly washed and drenched in sanitiser.” ~ drwhogirl_97
“I took a skeletonized animal from my back yard in for show and tell. I don’t know what animal it originally was and I think I kind of sneaked it past my mother.”
“The teacher was a bit surprised!”
“My cousin took a dead bat in a jar to school once. It was in the house.”
“They hit it with a broom, which killed it, then they put it in the jar.” ~ whatyouwant22
Too Sharp. Too Dangerous.
“I brought 2 knives.”
“My dad is from a region in France where they make famous knives (Laguiole) and I owned two of them (one made of horn and one was bright orange).”
“It didn’t cross my mind it could be a problem, but they called my parents (who weren’t mad at me).” ~lyscity
“My dad tells a story about when he brought his dad’s bird hunting shotgun and ammo to school for show and tell.”
“It was rather uneventful.”
“My grandpa walked out to the bus with him and told the bus driver that he was taking it in for show and tell.”
“Dad got to school, put the gun in his locker, and went and got it when it was time for show and tell.”
“He put it back in his locker after the presentation, then took it home on the bus.”
“Very different times.” ~ wedapeopleeh
Lucky
“The teacher across the hall from me had a student who brought what he thought was a lucky rabbit foot to show to the class and excitedly announced he had enough for everyone in the class.”
“The rabbit foot was a tampon.” ~ Saerica22
“My brother sent me a picture the other day of a sword one of his younger boys made out of the plastic part of a tampon applicators.”
“They have 2 teenage daughters and my friend that was on the text asked if he washed them.”
“The consensus was probably not.” ~ Nate0110
“This reminds me… as a child I had an actual rabbit’s foot. My step dad at the time got it (I don’t know from where), but it wasn’t taxidermied (?) properly, basically just cut off, so there was still some blood and meat inside.”
“I carried it around in a plastic bag for at least two weeks, showing everybody very proudly, until the stench just got too much!”
“To this day I don’t know where he even got it from or how he or I thought this was a good idea.” ~ Reddit
High Alert
“My brother found a scorpion at our house and captured it to bring for show and tell.”
“The scorpion got out somehow and the teacher had everyone on high alert to look for it and capture it.”
“Several children returned to the teacher having ‘found’ the scorpion.”
“That was the day we found out our school was infested with scorpions.” ~ Youaresoogoodlooking
The Skull
“I had a student bring in ‘her grandfather’s skull.’”
“The class was horrified. It turned out that he was a doctor and it was the skull that he kept in his office as a model.” ~ NinjaGinny
Got Tide?
“In my school some kid brought in his collection of ‘laundry rocks’ which were crumpled up pieces of paper that he put in his pockets and when his mom did the laundry they would turn hard like rocks.”
“He said he did it by accident once, liked it, and started deliberately putting crumpled paper in his pockets to make more.” ~ Pro_Gamer_Queen21
Rotten on the inside…
“I taught 5th grade in a school with really rich kids and really low income kids bussed in.”
“One of the low-income kids brought a coconut for her show and tell about Trinidad, where her dad was from.”
“She cracked it open — it was completely rotten inside and smelled awful.”
“I was so worried about the kid being embarrassed, but then one of the rich kids (who was also of a pretty low intellect) looked at it with wide eyes and said “It’s like the earth: the core, the mantle and the crust!” which is something I think he had never really understood before.”
“So it actually turned out pretty well.” ~ sanmateomary
Gas
“1993, grade 3 primary school in Australia.”
“My show and tell was rotten egg gas, I had a class mate hold a test tube that contained sulfur power while I added hydrochloric acid, no protective gear used. None of the adults saw any issue with this.” ~ Unshavensmoe
Show and tell sounds like a game of survival in some of these cases.
But it’s clearly never dull.