Activity

Remove or move round certain key things in the classroom.

Act ‘surprised’ when you enter the classroom. ‘What has happened here?’ See if children can ‘spot the difference’ and make observations about what has changed.

After the children have made some factual observations: ‘The sand tray has gone!’ ’Where are all the paints?’ tell the children that whilst they were at break you did hear a loud rumble coming from the classroom.

Use this ‘hook’ to start a story telling process with the class. Who might have been in the classroom? What might have happened? When did it happen? How can we find out where the objects have gone? Give children thinking time followed by time in pairs to discuss their ideas.

Share ideas as a whole class. Encourage children to justify their ideas: ‘I think a dragon came in and took the sandpit because he needed the sand to put out fires.’

Reflection

• Did the children have similar ideas?

• How imaginative did you think the class were?

• If you were to repeat this activity but removed different objects, do you think the story would change?

Go Further

When you remove certain objects from the learning space you could place them in different parts of the school. Children could then hunt for the missing objects, searching round the school and developing the story further by working out who moved them and why.

Persistent:

Children may have very different ideas about what has happened in the classroom but by justifying their ideas they may encounter questions and challenges from their classmates. As they work together forming a story, they will have to work with the uncertainty that no one knows what has happened or how the story will end.