Books are a wonderful, much treasured resource. But what can your setting do with old and battered volumes? Once they are past their shelf-life they can still be used for play, games and activities in your club.
Imaginative play
I spy
You will need:
* A book which is familiar to a lot of children n pens/pencils n blank sheets of paper
What to do:
For this play, children take on the role of a spy or detective and use a single book as their tool for communicating secret messages. Each spy jots down the page and line numbers of particular words that they wish to have in their message. They therefore only pass on the number code to their fellow spy, who then uses the book to decode the message.
The number code normally follows the sequence: page number, line number and word number (counting from the left of the page).
Games
Whose story is it anyway?
You will need:
* Selection of books n scissors
What to do:
The object of this game is to create a story from existing text. To start, children cut an equal amount of sentences from a selection of old storybooks. The first player then reads one of their sentences out loud.
Taking turns, each player then follows suit, reading a sentence from their own selection that would naturally follow the sentence read before them.
If any player does not have a sentence that logically follows the last sentence read, they are considered to be out of the game. The game continues until only one player is left, or where there is a 'stalemate'.
This game can be played with very young children by linking sequences of pictures together to make a story, instead of text.
Art and crafts
Wall collage
You will need:
* Pages from a book n pictures n PVA glue n brushes n paints What to do:
Select a number of books that are familiar to children you work with and find a large blank wall that you can create a collage on.
Children begin by taking pages from books they like and sticking them to a wall, either as a collective story, or as random stories.
Then, using paints, pens, pencils or other materials, encourage the children to create images around the text to bring the story visually alive. If careful, each random story could blend with another so the whole wall is one constant collage.
Book safe
You will need:
* Old, thick books n PVA glue n Stanley knife nGold paint What to do:
Fitting in well with the spy theme above, the object of this activity is to produce a 'book safe' or a safe that looks like a book!
Under supervision, help children cut out the centre of an old and very thick hardback book using the Stanley knife. The object is that when you open the book, there will be a space for hiding all sorts of objects.
Glue all the pages together until the book is solid enough to hold objects inside. You may also wish to create some form of locking mechanism with string or a padlock.
When the glue is dry, the edge of the pages could be painted with gold paint to give the effect of being antique, or you could even have a made-up title painted on the front cover.
Jewellery box
You will need:
* Old, thick books n PVA glue n Stanley knife npaints njewels npapier mache What to do: Following the same principles as above for making the 'book safe', instead paint and decorate the whole book to turn it into a jewellery box, or storage box, covering it with fake gems and/or studs, and so on.
An alternative to just painting could be to cover the whole volume in papier mache so as to make the book into any shape 'box' you desire, or covering it in a fabric. This can also be painted and covered in jewels. NW
Philip Waters is a freelance playwork trainer and consultant based in Cornwall
