Aliens in our Midst!

The children regularly ask for this writing game. I've done it about werewolves, vampires, zombies, and as a murder mystery, but the basic idea is that you give out slips of paper, one of which identifies the recipient as the baddie and which needs to be kept secret from the other children. 

The pupils all have to write persuasive speeches to deliver to the rest of the group (the "community"), setting out their ideas for dealing with the villain. Some will choose to be lenient, wanting to integrate the baddie into the community under various precautions, while others will want the interloper dealt with more harshly. At the end of the speeches, the group discusses what they will do as a community and then they vote for the best plan.

As a final bit of fun, they take a guess as to who among them is the baddie. (The clue is obviously that it'll be someone who's given a speech appealing for clemency, and the sharper students will pick this up.)

You don't actually need envelopes - they just add a bit of drama - and you don't have to use edible paper; ordinary paper will do fine. I happen to keep rice paper in my baking cupboard!

Joke Books

Writing Club is mainly about having fun writing, and that's what today's session focussed on. Of course jokes contain puns and wordplay, some of which is pretty sophisticated, and litany-structures ("knock knock") and riddles, all of which expand pupils' experience of language. But mainly we were having a laugh.

You could just ask the children to use joke books off the library shelves, or google 'jokes for kids' (the FOR KIDS is obviously very important), however I also gave out some sheets of clean jokes I'd downloaded off the internet. The children shared jokes they already knew, and some of them made up their own jokes and riddles on the spot.

I had some cheap notebooks that they used, but it's easy for children to make their own books if you have a long-arm stapler handy.

Script for an Advert

I don't claim this as original, but it's certainly an enjoyable and lively activity. We only have a 45 minute slot in my after-school club, but it's an idea you could expand to fill several lessons with upper KS2, really drilling down into the way advertisements are structured across various media.

As preparation, I took some fun-size Cosmic Whips (supermarket's own-brand Milky Ways) and wrapped them individually in plain paper. I gave out one to each child - though one between two would be fine, or even one per small group if you're on a very tight budget. 

The students then received the sheet above and I told them they were in charge of launching a new snack bar onto the market. They had to quickly decide on a name and brand image for their bar, using the prompts on the sheet, then when they were ready, script a YouTube or TV advert for the product. 

Those who wanted to performed their scripts and we videoed them, too.

Box of Whackiness

This is an idea I came across on Twitter. It was the idea of @buntyhoven's daughter and she kindly allowed me to share it. The premise is, you create a box of wholesome, no-props-required dares for use at a sleepover or party.

It does need a bit of prep. Write out your own dares (use the list above or think of your own) and let the children have a turn each so they get the idea. My group of Y5 and 6s absolutely loved this part.

Unless you have a supply of small boxes already made, the children will need to build their own. Google 'cuboid net' and then print the net onto a card for each student. There's a good net here: cuboid net. Provide the children with felt tips and perhaps sticky shapes to jazz up the sides of the box. They'll need scissors and glue to assemble their boxes too.

When they've finished, let them take turns picking dares out of each other's boxes.

I think this session could have lasted for two hours rather than the single one we had, but next week we have a visitor coming...

I Am...

Preparation: print this image or make up an 'I am' poster of your own. Assemble glue, scissors, A3 paper or thin card, plain white paper and some off-cuts of wrapping paper. Alternatively, pages from old magazines could be used for the background patterns.

Delivery: Get the children to brainstorm all the things they are in different contexts/to different people. For example, who are they in a family sense? A son? A sister? A nephew? A granddaughter? Then ask them to think about all the skills they practise in school and what that makes them - a writer, a mathematician, a footballer, a gymnast, an artist, a cartographer, a scientist, a linguist etc. The next section should be about their personalities: are they curious? Calm? Energetic? Thoughtful? Hilarious? Finally ask for anything that hasn't been covered - nationality and heritage, for example. Stress the information should either be neutral/factual, or positive, nothing negative. 

When they have their lists complete, ask them to consider what amazing individuals they are! (As I said to them, 'We all have bad days when we make mistakes and think we're rubbish. Stick this poster on your bedroom wall to remind yourself that you're absolutely not.')

Next, show them the 'I Am...' sheet and explain they are going to make one of their own. After that, the students really need very little direction, as long as they can see the example to use a template. My own group is currently half-way through this activity but we have a fifty minute slot only; another session will see it completed. So, unlike the other activities I post here, this is a two-hour job.

The 'I Am...' poster would make a nice start-of-term/ getting-to-know-you lesson for any class. As well as a writing club activity, this could also be something you could do in a Learning Mentor session to help build up a child's self-esteem.