Do this first with the whole class, and then choose maybe eight of the children who have participated enthusiastically to perform the exercise to the rest.
The teacher starts the game, and each successive speaker must repeat everything the last speaker said, finishing with their own contribution.
For example:
Teacher: "I see a red car".
First child: "I see a red car in the town centre"
Second child: "I see a red car in the town centre near the bus station"
Third child: "I see a red car in the town centre near the bus station. A number 47 bus is just leaving."
Fourth child: "I see a red car in the town centre near the bus station. A number 47 bus is just leaving. A man is running after the bus"
Fifth child: "I see a red car in the town centre near the bus station. A number 47 bus is just leaving. A man is running after the bus. He is carrying a large bag."
Sixth child: "I see a red car in the town centre near the bus station. A number 47 bus is just leaving. A man is running after the bus. He is carrying a large bag which bursts open as he reaches the bus."
Seventh child: "I see a red car in the town centre near the bus station. A number 47 bus is just leaving. A man is running after the bus. He is carrying a large bag which bursts open as he reaches the bus.Some sausages fall on the pavement”.
Eighth child: "I see a red car in the town centre near the bus station. A number 47 bus is just leaving. A man is running after the bus. He is carrying a large bag which bursts open as he reaches the bus.Some sausages fall on the pavement.A dog grabs the sausages”.
. . . . and so on. Go round a second time if possible.
The secret of course is to 'see' the scene building up in the 'mind's eye', rather than trying to remember the words. It is a skill which takes time to develop, but the improvement in imagination and creativity in written work, and in the ability of the children to 'think on their feet', make the effort worth while. Most children enjoy the game, and often continue it in the playground or at home.
2. Stories In A Sentence
The thought of having to write a story doesn't fill all children with enthusiasm, because usually the teacher says "Make sure you write .... lines. A couple of sentences won't do!" It can be fun, therefore, to find that a story can be contained in a single sentence. This game also helps to sharpen up the child's imagination and quicken response times.
Stage One
"You know that a story contains a beginning, middle and end. Well, we're going to make up some stories which have only a beginning and an end. I'll give you the beginning, which will be the first half of a sentence, and you give me the end, to complete the sentence."
'I took my dog for a walk in the park and . . . . '
Endings will include '. . . . he chased a cat' ' . . . . we played with a ball' '. . . . she fell in the pond' '. . . . he bit someone' and (inevitably) ‘he did a poo’.
After each, I usually repeat the whole sentence and say "There you are, a complete story!"
After a few goes, change the beginning
'I went to the supermarket for the shopping and .....' 'I climbed the ladder to clean the windows and ....' 'I saw someone robbing a bank and ....' 'I went to the circus and .....'
Stage Two
Now the middles can be introduced.Usually an opportunity arises naturally, as in
“I climbed the ladder to clean the windows and …. I fell down and broke my leg”
“Now that’s better as a middle than an end.‘I fell down and broke my leg’ is the middle, so what is the end?”
“An ambulance took me to hospital”
“Ah, that’s another piece of middle!What happened next?”
“The doctor examined me” etc etc
Stage Three
"Now I'm going to give you some beginnings again and I want you to think of a middle, before we add the ending".
'I took my dog for a walk on the park and ....'
Middles will be 'I met someone else walking their dog . . . ', ending in 'and we swapped dogs', 'he chased a cat up a tree . . . ' and 'I had to climb the tree to get the cat down' 'he bit someone . . . ' 'who had to go to hospital' 'a man asked if I'd seen his black Labrador . . . ' 'and we both went to look for her'
Children enjoy this game and often continue it in the playground, and will come to you with their 'story in a sentence'. It also gives the less able child the chance to perform at the same level as his peers.
3. Mapping A Story
Children (and adults!) often ask for the 'trick' of remembering stories.The answer is 'there isn't a trick', but drawing a map of the story can help.
Let's say you want to remember The Land Where No-One Ever Dies.In about a minute you can quickly draw a map of the main locations, and add arrows to show the direction of the story.
Your map doesn't need to be a work of art, in fact it will work better if it is a very quick sketch because it will then contain only the essentials.Having drawn a map, you now have a visual memory as well as an aural one.
Mapping can also help when writing a story. It can be fun to see the plot building up, and the need to create a sensible drawing often makes one think more carefully about the writing.
4. Let's Make A Story...
"Let's make a story with the help of some of my friends".
I produce a selection of fluffy toys, often including a gorilla, a teddy bear, a lion and an octopus.
"I'll start the story.Teddy is going for a walk in the woods, and he falls down and hurts himself" (Teddy, walking on my knee, falls on his face)
"What happens next?"
From the volley of suggestions I usually take "Someone comes and finds him"
"Who?"
"The Gorilla"
"Teddy's really quite ill, so what does Gorilla do?"
"Takes him to hospital" Gorilla picks up Teddy and goes to the hospital.
"What happens when he gets there?"
"The nurse puts him to bed"
"Who is the nurse?"
"The Lion" Lion now tucks Teddy up in bed.
"What now?"
"The doctor comes"
"Who is the doctor?"
"The Octopus"
"What does the doctor do?"
"Feels his pulse, sounds his chest, looks at his eyes, looks in his mouth, etc" Octopus manages to do all of these things at once, and Teddy gets thrown about rather a lot.
"What does the doctor ask the nurse to do?"
Someone always says "Give him an injection" A pencil is produced, and nurse takes a run at teddy and stabs him with it.
The effect is miraculous, with Teddy leaping out of bed and running frantically backwards and forwards, dancing and turning somersaults. The children fall about with laughter (sometimes teachers too).
"Now get into your groups. Choose four fluffy toys, and make up a story"
If there are enough toys for each group to have some I share them out and let the children play with them for a couple of minutes.
Stories begin to emerge without the need for any more prompting.
If there aren't enough toys, they must pretend.
Released from the constraints of writing, the children often produce exciting stories. At first these are derivative, copies of tales they know or which I've told them, but soon they begin to revel in the fact that there are no rules or limits.
5. Hard Of Hearing?
The children will have seen people 'signing' for the deaf.Remind them of this.Maybe someone will have a deaf relative, and be able to tell the rest of the class the problems they have.
Ask the children to imagine they are at a storytelling at which the whole audience is deaf, and cannot hear the story which is about to be told.
The storyteller asks someone to do the signing, but they don't know the deaf sign language. So he says 'Use your arms, hands, head and body to make pictures of the story while I tell it, so that they will know what the story is about, even though they can't hear me.'
Try this out in your class.Choose a story they know and decide together what gestures, shapes, and movements should be used to help the deaf to understand it.
For instance, how would they mime someone eating? That's an easy one, but how would they show the audience that the person in the story is frightened, or suspicious, or cold?Remind them that they can't speak or make any other noise, because the audience won't be able to hear them.
In groups, the children can choose a story, and decide on the gestures and expressions they need to ‘tell’ it in silence.They can then try the story out on other groups.The next step is to present it to the whole class.Eventually a storyteller
6. Commentators
Sports programmes on television have commentators who give viewers extra information in the hope that this will add to their enjoyment of the event. Imagine that storytellers have commentators too.
When the storyteller pauses, the commentator gives the audience more information on the people, places or events of the story.
For example:-
Storyteller: "The king came into the room" Commentator: "He was dressed in a gold cloak, and green shoes with the toes pulled up into a curl" Storyteller: "He banged his fist on the table" Commentator: "The plates rattled and the cutlery tinkled" Storyteller: "He looked very angry" Commentator "Everyone was scared, and wondered what was going to happen"
Try this a few times with the whole class, perhaps with stories they know well, and then plan a presentation with the storyteller and commentator. After a few attempts the children get the idea and within minutes you could have a very valuable brainstorming session on your hands, so have the tape recorder ready!
7. The Character's Point Of View
Choose a story which the children know well, perhaps Cinderella.Discuss the story, concentrating on what the characters thought, why they behaved as they did, how they responded to things that happened.Talk also about the 'unseen' characters, such as the palace servants, and the people who lived in the house next to Cinderella's.What did they think about what happened?
Choose a character and ask the children to say what that character knew about the story.For instance, the prince would know nothing (until afterwards) about the way Cinderella was treated by her step-mother and step-sisters, and Buttons wouldn't know what happened at the ball until Cinderella told him.
Ask someone to be the Wicked Stepmother and to tell the story through her eyes.Then choose another character, and another storyteller.
Discuss the different versions told by these people who have experienced parts of the same event.Why are the stories different?
Ask a child to pretend that s/he really is one of the characters, and ask questions which can't be answered with a 'Yes' or 'No'.
"Why did you make Cinderella do all the dirty work?""What did you (neighbour) think when you saw Cinderella going out in the beautiful coach?Where did you think it had come from?""Why did you have every dance with Cinderella?""What do you (Cinderella) think about when you're lying in bed at night, just before you go to sleep?"
This activity helps the children to get inside the people in a story, and with a little practice improves their ability to portray their own story characters, whether they are telling a story or writing it.It can also lead to a lot of laughter, which will mean the lessons are actually remembered!
8. Big Ideas Book
Many teachers are concerned about the aridity of 'creative writing' produced by children today. They often seem to have a shortage of experiences with which to enliven their stories.
They don't talk to other members of the family as much as their parents and grandparents did when they were young, and don't seem to get out and about as much as 'we' did. Because most of their 'experience' comes from television and computers, their stories are filled with violence and often little else. There are still those who maintain that children are not effected by what they see on the small screen. Not long ago there were still people around who believed that the Earth was flat.
The imagination and creativity of children need to be stimulated more than ever before, so why not amalgamate all the experiences of the children in the class and encourage them to use the lot!A 'Big Book' made out of wallpaper could contain everything the kids bring in, including cuttings from newspapers and items from television.
A page in the book might then include :-
Setting off fireworks round the bonfire. Falling off my horse during a riding lesson, and going to hospital in an ambulance. Coming home from school and finding the dog had had six puppies. Going to Disneyland and shaking hands with Mickey Mouse. Waking up in the night and hearing strange noises outside, like someone rolling a saucepan lid around. Learning to swim. A man at the building society had a gun, but they shouted and he ran away. Singing with the latest pop group.. I had a dream about rehearsing the school play in a car park, and cars were coming in and out very fast and we had to keep jumping out of the way, while we tried to remember our lines.
To start things off you could have a weekly topic, like What can happen in a story? Can you remember when you were frightened? or What are your character's hobbies?
I know schools where classrooms have several of these books, which are all regularly used by children looking for ideas for stories. As a result, the stories are often more interesting both to write and to read.
To get the project started you could quickly produce a couple of pages like these.Better still, give the children some magazines and let them do it!
9. At The Post Office
Imagine you are in a queue at the post office. The lady in front of you has a heavy parcel which she keeps changing from one arm to the other. When she reaches the counter she puts the parcel on the scale, and tells the assistant the country it is going to.
Answer these questions, after discussing them with your partner or other members of your group.
What country is the parcel going to?
What is in the parcel?
Who is the recipient (the person who will receive the parcel)?
Describe this person (appearance, job, hobbies, home, family etc)
What will s/he do with what is in the parcel?
Who is the lady who is sending the parcel?
What is her relationship with the recipient?
Describe the lady (appearance, job, hobbies, home, family etc)
The recipient writes a letter to the lady, telling her that s/he has received the parcel. Write this letter.
Write notes on what the lady might send in future parcels, if any, and what the recipient will do with what s/he receives.
