Start out using sound boxes to introduce inferencing to students. Fill small boxes with a variety of materials like rice, cotton balls, corn kernels, sand, flour, soil and beads. Each box will contain only one item with enough room to allow students to shake the box. Empty plastic Easter eggs work well for this activity, too. Once boxes are prepared, provide students with the boxes, and in groups ask them to listen to the sounds made by the contents without opening the boxes. Provide students with a list of the contents of the boxes without identifying which box contains what item. Ask students to infer what each item is, just by using the sounds they hear. Have students describe the sounds they hear to describe the contents of the boxes. To conclude the activity, identify the contents of the boxes for the students and have students do a writing activity where they describe one of the contents of the boxes.
Students enjoy riddles and are comfortable with solving riddles. A terrific and fun activity to get students to think about inferencing is to use riddles. Select a variety of familiar things to students like cars, bicycles, food items and favorite games. Create three to five sentences to describe each item. After providing students with teacher-made riddles, allow students to write their own to challenge their classmates.
Mystery stories provide students the opportunity to practice their inferencing skills. There are many grade-appropriate stories on the Internet; just search for fifth-grade mysteries, inferencing mysteries or whodunit. Start off by reading a mystery with the whole class. Using graphic organizers, show students how to organize their thoughts and the information being provided to them in the story. After solving the first story with the class, allow students to practice in small groups and individually.
Locate the audio clip of Andy Griffith's monologue, "What It Was Was Football." Without telling the students the name of the clip, have them listen to the monologue. Once students have listened to the monologue once, ask students it any of them have figured out where he is. For the ones who have figured it out, ask them to keep it to themselves to allow the rest of the class to hear the monologue again. The second time the clip is played, tell students to write down clues that they hear. Play the clip again. The third time, go through the clip piece-by-piece while identifying the inferences in the monologue. The students will really enjoy this activity while learning how to inference.