Silly Stories

One way we can learn with each other is by slowing down and thinking before we act. When we slow down and think before we act, we are practicing self-control. Self-control helps us be in charge of what we say and do. We will practice self-control in a game called Silly Stories. This game is about listening carefully to a story and remembering to do a silly opposite of certain words you hear.

1. Tell students you are going to read a story. (see sample stories on the back of the card). Every time students hear a certain word in the story, they should perform a different action than the word they hear.
2. Tell students what words will prompt them to perform an action. For example, every time students hear the word “drums” in the story, they should pretend to play the guitar, and vice versa.

• What about this game was easy or hard for you?
• What strategies did you use? What might you do differently next time?
• When do you need to use self-control (in or out of school)?
• How would you change this game for the next time we play?

For primary school students:

• Decrease the challenge by reading the story more slowly or posting the words on the screen with visual representations of key words.
• Increase the number of actions in the story or read it faster.
• Invite students to come up with their own stories in teams and choose certain movements.

For students in grades 5-6:

• Choose a story related to educational tasks.
• Invite students to create their own story in teams.
• Invite students to create stories and add actions with objects from the classroom space.

Examples of stories:

• Svitlana loved to swim but her football playing brother, Sasha, would never come swimming with her. Whenever she went to watch him play football, she asked him to join her for a swim, but Sasha just stayed on the football pitch everyday. Even after Svitlana would play football with Sasha and his friends, Sasha would tell his sister that he would stay on the football pitch while she went for a swim. (Words to change the action: play soccer, swim)
• Diana and her friends played music the other night. Diana was the singer, Daryna played the guitar, Dmitry played the drums, and Daniel played the xylophone. Poor Dmitry, he banged those drums so hard they broke, and a piece hit Daryna’s guitar and broke it too. Diana had her eyes closed and just kept singing. She did not even notice that the drums and guitar weren’t playing! (Words to change the action: guitar, drum)