3. Literacy - story activity

The third set of postcards the children saw were a collection of disparate and evocative images of people, animals, objects, buildings, places and landscapes.

The children were set an activity connected to their work in literacy, in which they first interpreted one of the images individually developing a story around the image. Then in mixed-ability groups of four (made up of two sets of talk partners), they were challenged to brainstorm and create a story based on four images.

The images were chosen so that they included people that could be used as characters, animals and objects, and buildings or landscapes in which action could take place. These activities built on the work in the gallery, beginning to read and interpret images, and highlighted the use of narrative in the way we attribute meaning to images.

I was...surprised that when the children got into groups and had to make stories about the postcards they seemed to get very engaged. They really enjoyed this. (Laurie Long)