Photo: Hartwig HKD
A world that does not yet exist!A mind-boggling topic for a lazy summer day.
Storytelling activities are a wonderful way for children to develop their imagination and creative approach to thinking. It is also great fun to play around with language and invent new words and sounds to create a suitable atmosphere. Many famous children's authors have created words that do not exist. Be inspired by this approach to storytelling.
Searching or creating an imagined but persuasive alternative reality is a great way to encourage children to escape from the usual way they think about things. It is easy to think that the way we live now is somehow the only way that the world can be organised. Encouraging children to explore worlds that do not yet exist is a fun way to not only spend a lazy summer afternoon on the lawn imagining the future but also a great way to think dive into the present.
- What if houses could talk and tell us everything about what had happended in the house. Escape from the world as it is by using this question.
- If only I was invisible. This question helps a storyteller to explore something exciting or terrifying about the future.
- If this goes on the animals will disappear. Take something that is happening today and imagines what would happen if this problem or aspect of our lives continued to grow and get bigger.
Storytelling and imagining new worlds is not about predicting what would happen sometime in the future, instead, it is about thinking about the present and exploring different aspects by exaggerating certain ideas.
Have some fun and make a model of the new world, draw a map, make a giant painting or explore storyboards.
There are several blog posts about the importance and ways to use questions, go here to read a more about this topic.