Requirements
Objective
Description
Magic Stories
This activity involves the whole class creating a story together. The story is not written down, and is made up spontaneously by individuals in the class.
1) Find a suitable pen (or other object) which can be passed around the classroom easily.
2) Tell the children that the pen / object which you are holding up is M A G I C because people who hold it can tell wonderful stories.
3) Explain that no-one is allowed to talk unless they are holding the pen (that includes the teacher!).
4) Start off a story, making up one yourself or by looking at the examples of story-starters below.
5) When you have finished the introduction, give the pen to another child (preferably a more confident one if this is the first time you have tried this activity with the class) and ask them to continue the story for a few sentences.
6) When they have finished their part of the story, ask them to pass the pen on to someone else who will continue.
7) Carry on passing the pen around until someone decides to finish the story (or if you are in a hurry to finish, indicate that you want them to finish off the story in some way – discuss such signals with the class before you begin).
Examples of introductionsÛ_
1) Paul was bored. It was halfway through the summer holidays and he was fed up, so he decided to go exploring. He climbed up to the top of the stairs, when he saw a door which had never been there before. He went in and in the middle of the room was a strange purple box. It had a picture of a magic wand on the front. He slowly lifted the lid, peeked underneath and saw something which would change his life forever…
2) “Base to Captain SkyFighter, Base to Captain SkyFighter. Come in Captain SkyFighter.”
“Captain SkyFighter. Come in Captain SkyFighter. Where are you?”
“Captain SkyFighter. This is an urgent message. We are tracking an unidentified object and it is heading straight for you. You need to leave immediately. Hurry!”
In his spacecraft, Captain Skyfighter is fast asleep, unaware of what is fast approaching his ship.
3) There once was a witch called Wanda. Wanda had long green hair, purple eyes and a large wart on the top of her nose. She had made a potion which would make the handsome prince fall in love with her, and she was taking it to him to make him drink it. However, on her way, she tripped over on a stone, and the potion flew out of her hand and it landed in the mouth of…
4) Bobby the Bunny was fast asleep. He was dreaming about laying in a cabbage patch (that was his favorite kind of dream). Just then, in his dream, a huge black cloud drifted in the sky above him. He looked up, and stared at the cloud for a few seconds, when he realized that it wasn’t a cloud. It was a…
5) Katie was playing on her computer. Her mom had told her to turn it off because it was nearly dinner time, but Katie was so busy concentrating on the game that she didn’t hear. Katie was on the last level of her favorite game, and she was just about to kill the evil wizard Mag so that she could move onto the next level. The screen flickered…. It flickered again, and it started flashing strange colors. Suddenly Katie was sucked into her computer screen. When she awoke, she found herself in the wizard’s chambers. SHE WAS ACTUALLY INSIDE THE GAME!
