5 + 5 Activity Resource (No. 17) – 5 Independent & 5 Cooperative Learning Activities to Try (Literacy, Language, & Creative Writing)

5+5 Activity Guide – Week 17

Welcome to Week 17 of our 5+5 Activity Guides. As in the last 2 weeks, I plan to base this week’s suggestions on the current Children’s Art Week theme which is Literacy and Creative Writing.

If you follow me on social media, you will have seen me share Cressida’s Creativity Summer Camp – a creativity camp led by Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell all last week. If your child missed it, the videos are still available on YouTube. Featuring contributions from a host of amazing authors and illustrators including:

Dapo Adeola | David Almond | Allen Fatimaharan | Liz Pichon | Chris Riddell | Marta Altés | Rob Biddulph | Sarah McIntyre | Nadia Shireen | Joseph Coelho | Laura Dockrill | Theresa Lola | Joshua Seigal | Eoin Colfer | Frank Cottrell Boyce | Sharna Jackson | Zanib Mian | Onjali Raúf | Francesca Simon

together with International Children’s Laureates: Jason Reynolds | Eloise Williams | Áine Ní Ghlinn | Ursula Dubosarsky | Manon Sikkel

It really is worth catching up on if you missed it. Find the videos here. Hear her introduce the camp in this video.

This week’s theme is an interesting one as we can interpret literacy in so many ways.

Literacy: the ability to read and write.

Literacy: competence or knowledge in a specified area, e.g. Digital Literacy, Media Literacy, Cultural Literacy, Financial Literacy etc.

I will focus on oral language, reading, writing and illustrating in this post, but this week is a really great opportunity for your child to explore the type of literacy of greatest interest to them.

This week, World Emoji Day falls on the 17th, and we will celebrate Mandela Day on the 18th. I will share a separate post with ideas for marking Mandela Day during the week.

In the meantime, let’s dive in with some of my suggestions for literacy and creative writing. If you find some great activities on any other literacy themes, please do share for others to enjoy.

Independent

Reading

Of course, top of the list of things to do when we talk about literacy is READ, READ, READ. Use the Summer Reading Challenge Book Sorter to select new books on themes of interest.

Poetry

Reading Realm has put together an enormous collection of poetry prompts to take the intimidation out of writing tasks and get the creative juices flowing.

Writing

Try any of the wealth of activity ideas Book Trust have put together. Here are a couple of my favourites your child can do independently:

Scavenger Hunt Story
Follow the advice of Jan Carson and create a Postcard Story.

An additional writing task is this lovely well-being idea:

Can your child write a well-being recipe such as this from Nina Jackson?

Illustration

The Book Trust have also shared a wealth of videos from illustrators your child may enjoy.

Emoji Challenge

With World Emoji Day falling on July 17th,

Can your child solve these emoji challenges?
Can (s)he create some emoji puzzles of their own?
If you didn’t previously try our compound words emoji challenge, click the link to download it for free today from our store.

Cooperative

Long-time readers will know the importance I attach to oracy (the ability to express oneself fluently and grammatically in speech). With that in mind, the following games are designed to promote the development of speaking and listening skills. Children cannot express themselves in writing if they are unable to explain themselves clearly in spoken language to begin with. As well as exposing children to a wide variety of books and varied reading material, it is essential we provide lots of opportunities for conversation. Here are some great games for promoting oral language. These are also great activities for EAL (English as an Additional Language) learners.

Word Endings & Beginnings

In this game, you say a word. The next person must then come up with a word beginning with the last letter of your word. For example,
- Player 1: Cat
- Player 2: Trumpet
- Player 3: Torch etc.
Increase the difficulty level by choosing a category from which words must be drawn, e.g., pets or musical instruments.
What’s the longest word chain your group can create?

Word Association

Player 1 says a word out loud.
Going clockwise, the next player, must quickly provide a word connected with the previous word.
The players must determine what counts as a connection. If someone feels a word is unconnected, they can challenge it, and everyone votes on whether or not to allow it. In the event of a tie, the word is allowed.
A player is eliminated if:

1. They are unable to provide a connection within 3 seconds. (You can adapt this time limit to allow more thinking time if you wish.)
2. They repeat a word that has already been said in this game.
3. They are challenged and lose the vote.

The last player left standing wins.

Word Disassociation

Try the opposite of Word Association!
Player 1 says a random word.
Going clockwise, the next player, must quickly provide a word unconnected with the previous word.
Once again, the players must reach consensus as to whether words are allowed. If someone feels a word is connected, they can challenge it, stating the connection they can see, and everyone votes on whether or not to allow it. In the event of a tie, the word is allowed.
Elimination follows the same procedure as above.
The last student left standing wins.

20 Questions

Player 1 thinks of a place/ object/ person.
Player 2 must try to discover what they are thinking of by asking a maximum of 20 yes/no/maybe questions.

Taboo Words

Make a list of words on individual pieces of paper.
Place the words in a ‘hat’ and ask player 1 to select one and describe it without using the word on the piece of paper (the taboo word).

Here are some words to get you started.

cat	bed	hospital	Paris	orange
star	stadium	ocean	gymnastics	flute
magazine	wrestling	moon	dustbin	microphone
shell	Egypt	sister	rhinoceros	Mercury

World Youth Skills Day

Finally, World Youth Skills Day falls on July 15th. If your children are a little older, you may wish to have a discussion with them based on this video clip.

I hope this post has given you some good ideas for some fun activities for the upcoming week. If you don’t already do so, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where I post lots of education news, updates and daily #conversation starters. Here’s today’s prompt as an example:

5+5 Activity Guide – Week 17

Welcome to Week 17 of our 5+5 Activity Guides. As in the last 2 weeks, I plan to base this week’s suggestions on the current Children’s Art Week theme which is Literacy and Creative Writing.

together with International Children’s Laureates: Jason Reynolds | Eloise Williams | Áine Ní Ghlinn | Ursula Dubosarsky | Manon Sikkel

It really is worth catching up on if you missed it. Find the videos here. Hear her introduce the camp in this video.

This week’s theme is an interesting one as we can interpret literacy in so many ways.

Literacy: the ability to read and write.

Literacy: competence or knowledge in a specified area, e.g. Digital Literacy, Media Literacy, Cultural Literacy, Financial Literacy etc.

I will focus on oral language, reading, writing and illustrating in this post, but this week is a really great opportunity for your child to explore the type of literacy of greatest interest to them.

This week, World Emoji Day falls on the 17th, and we will celebrate Mandela Day on the 18th. I will share a separate post with ideas for marking Mandela Day during the week.

In the meantime, let’s dive in with some of my suggestions for literacy and creative writing. If you find some great activities on any other literacy themes, please do share for others to enjoy.

Independent

Reading

Of course, top of the list of things to do when we talk about literacy is READ, READ, READ. Use the Summer Reading Challenge Book Sorter to select new books on themes of interest.

Poetry

Reading Realm has put together an enormous collection of poetry prompts to take the intimidation out of writing tasks and get the creative juices flowing.

Writing

Try any of the wealth of activity ideas Book Trust have put together. Here are a couple of my favourites your child can do independently:

Scavenger Hunt Story

Follow the advice of Jan Carson and create a Postcard Story.

An additional writing task is this lovely well-being idea:

Can your child write a well-being recipe such as this from Nina Jackson?

Illustration

The Book Trust have also shared a wealth of videos from illustrators your child may enjoy.

Emoji Challenge

With World Emoji Day falling on July 17th,

Can your child solve these emoji challenges?

Can (s)he create some emoji puzzles of their own?

If you didn’t previously try our compound words emoji challenge, click the link to download it for free today from our store.

Cooperative

Word Endings & Beginnings

In this game, you say a word. The next person must then come up with a word beginning with the last letter of your word. For example,

Player 1: Cat

Player 2: Trumpet

Player 3: Torch etc.

Increase the difficulty level by choosing a category from which words must be drawn, e.g., pets or musical instruments.

What’s the longest word chain your group can create?

Word Association

Player 1 says a word out loud.

Going clockwise, the next player, must quickly provide a word connected with the previous word.

The players must determine what counts as a connection. If someone feels a word is unconnected, they can challenge it, and everyone votes on whether or not to allow it. In the event of a tie, the word is allowed.

A player is eliminated if:

They are unable to provide a connection within 3 seconds. (You can adapt this time limit to allow more thinking time if you wish.)

They repeat a word that has already been said in this game.

They are challenged and lose the vote.

The last player left standing wins.

Word Disassociation

Try the opposite of Word Association!

Player 1 says a random word.

Going clockwise, the next player, must quickly provide a word unconnected with the previous word.

Once again, the players must reach consensus as to whether words are allowed. If someone feels a word is connected, they can challenge it, stating the connection they can see, and everyone votes on whether or not to allow it. In the event of a tie, the word is allowed.

Elimination follows the same procedure as above.

The last student left standing wins.

20 Questions

Player 1 thinks of a place/ object/ person.

Player 2 must try to discover what they are thinking of by asking a maximum of 20 yes/no/maybe questions.

Taboo Words

Make a list of words on individual pieces of paper.

Place the words in a ‘hat’ and ask player 1 to select one and describe it without using the word on the piece of paper (the taboo word).

Here are some words to get you started.

cat

bed

hospital

Paris

orange

star

stadium

ocean

gymnastics

flute

magazine

wrestling

moon

dustbin

microphone

shell

Egypt

sister

rhinoceros

Mercury

World Youth Skills Day