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

 

 

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: 

 

 

Take care & stay safe all!

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *