The story of your name
You may wish to pick your own topic or choose a question like this:
- What do you know about your name? Do you know why it was chosen or whether it means something in another language?
You and your child can talk about your first name, middle name or surname.
Fortunately, unfortunately
This activity works best with a group of people sat in a circle.
- First person begins their sentence with ‘fortunately’, and introduces the first sentence of a story.
- The next person builds on the story by starting with the word ‘unfortunately’.
- Everyone goes round in circles, taking turns with alternative ‘fortunately’ and ‘unfortunately’ sentences.
This activity encourages creativity, humour and some unexpected endings!
Exchange a story
You might like to encourage your child to interview a friend or family member. They could find out a bit more about their childhood, a journey they’ve experienced, or an amusing life story. Try the quick or longer version of this story sharing activity.
Quick
You may wish to pick your own topic or choose one of the questions:
- What was the most surprising or unusual journey you went on?
- What traditions have been passed down your family?
- What is your favourite family recipe? Do you know which country it comes from?
In pairs, ask one person to share and one person to list to the other's answer. Then switch so the other person is talking or listening. Ask them to retell the story they heard.
Going further
For the longer version of this story sharing activity you and your child could explore a physical journey like growing up, moving house or country, or a lesson learnt from an experience!
To get started:
- Get your child to pick a friend or family member to exchange a story.
- In the pair, one person should tell the other about an experience or journey from their life so far. You might like to encourage your child to write down some notes as they listen!
- The person who was listening should try telling the person’s story back to them!
- Once you’ve completed the story reading, your child should have a go at interviewing them again – but this time about how it felt to hear their story read back to them!
Download our Community Guide for advice about how to run these activities and more with your child, or in your community.
