It’s been twenty years since I first received an email from my publishers saying they were interested in the books I had proposed. My excitement shot through the roof and measures had to be taken to settle me! I’ve never been anything close to ‘cool’.
My first books: called Outside the Box eventually came out in 2007. I remember I was asked by my publisher, around the time the books were due out, to talk to the sales team to enthuse them about the books. I remember doing a presentation about how you would sell them to different people depending upon how ‘outside the box’ they were as the activities are undoubtedly variable in levels of bonkerishness! (See pictures from slides below!)
Some books I created a short while later were called ‘Free Time Activities.’ These were probably even more ‘off the wall’. (The Free Time Activities books are now so allocated to the past, I think you can only get them from eBay.) They contain many more activities that were suitable for off-timetable sessions such as wet-break, after school clubs etc.
I have used activities from these books for years with children but as I always used photocopies, I realised I hadn’t looked at the original books for quite some time until very recently. It was almost like being introduced to my younger self. I would never try to be ‘everyone’s cup of tea’ (impossible obviously) but I did wonder how the books were received as they are – well – quite quirky in places. They also contain random activities, that need children to apply problem solving logic – like where to put the zebra crossings, the odd murder mystery based on bins or photos (!) or which route Postwoman Pam should take. I do need to point out here that I was a funny child! (I have recently been described as a ‘funny lady’ too – in print!)
My favourite story about these books was when I was at the festival: ‘Latitude’. My husband was performing (music) so we were camping in the artists’ area. At one point I was sitting sharing a beer with Tom Walker (a comedian who plays the brilliantly ranting Jonathan Pie) and his friend: a teacher visiting from South America. (Shapi Khorsandi joined Tom at one point too, to chat ‘comedy’ – quite seriously and earnestly I remember).
I was really enjoying the conversation with Tom’s friend and eventually he asked me what I did.
‘I’m a teacher,’ I replied, ‘oh and I have written some books for teachers too.’ He established he was also a teacher and asked which books I had written. When I said ‘Outside the Box’ he became extremely animated.
‘You’re not really the author of Outside the Box are you? For real? I love those books, I use them all the time.’ I assumed he was mocking me – but no – he could tell me which activities he used. He even tried interrupting Tom and Shapi to explain who I was but I nipped that in the bud with a, ‘I doubt very much they’ll share your excitement.’ I was glowing at the idea that my books were being used in South America!
That pre-amble aside, I thought I would share a small number of the ideas from these early books, because I hope, like me, they make you giggle!
Write a school report for….. (From Outside the Box for ages 9-11)
I used this activity a lot with children. The example given is the school report for Penelope – who thinks she is a spy. I particularly like that Penelope only taps Morse code rhythms in music and does all her maths in invisible ink. (Look at me so ‘un-Britishly’ liking my work. This was young me – she needed encouragement!)
I gave children this example and their task was to write snippets from the school report for someone who thinks they are….a circus clown, a news reporter, and astronaut, a character from a fairy tale etc. (or any other ideas they had – a synchronised swimmer, a traffic warden, a librarian etc.). They could mix and match which character the child thought they were, for different parts of the report, just going wherever their inspiration took them.
The entertaining ideas children created often had the whole class in stitches: a clown involving a bucket of water in every PE lesson, a news reporter refusing the leave the corridor in case a story broke out in one of the classes or one of the three bears taking too long to complete their technology projects because they insisted on creating everything in three sizes. n the extension activities, I suggest designing their pencil case!
It’s dated now though: ‘numeracy’ ‘literacy etc. but it could easily be adapted!
Sarripia Track (From Free Time Activities for ages 7-9)
I had forgotten this one, but then re-remembered it, as kids loved it! The idea is very simple: you create a path edge using skipping ropes, you place pictures of each of the features next to the path (I drew them on sugar paper) and then ask children to mime walking down the route. I would go on to ask children to create extra features to add to the ‘path of mimes’. You could visibly see children becoming more engaged, creative and confident as the activity unfolded.
Pencil Olympics (From Free Time Activities 9-11)
This always went down well but never took very long. I used to extend engagement by asking children to create their own pencil race, which they loved!
The Garden Of Damgor (from Outside the Box 7-9)
I loved the illustration that went with this. (The illustrator was a ‘John Kelly’ but I never met or communicated directly with him.) I remember many children loving the idea of ‘killer plants’.
One year we made models of our plants and created a wall display of the garden – with labels describing each plant’s dangerous features and a picture of King Damgor looking proud and holding a shield, surrounded by the Damgelf (who should really have been gnomes)! Even ‘back in the day’, this kind of fun could only be an ‘end of term’ activity – like nearly all of the activities in these books!
From Ordinary to Extra-Extraordinary (from Even More Outside the Box 7-9)
This activity was great for reluctant writers. I’d also encourage children to illustrate what they had written- which some children loved more than the writing of course!
Alien Washing Line (From Free Time Activities 7-9)
This is the kind of activity that might prompt my uzband to say, ‘you do realise not everyone’s head works like yours (rhetorical mark)’. Even so, I would have loved this as a child and I am actually tempted to have another go at it! If anyone sends me their response to this activity, I will post it below!
Design an advert for a school lesson (from Even More Outside the Box 9-11)
I didn’t think this was particularly imaginative, but I do remember children laughing at, and enjoying, the negative comments about different lessons. We used to add to these comments before going on the write the positive adverts. This might even have been cathartic for some children! It was an entertaining lesson in persuasive writing as exaggerations were well and truly encouraged.
School exchange (from Outside the Box 9-11)
This one still makes me giggle as I remember one child choosing ‘Vora’ and her diary of the week was hilarious based on the muddling of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ alone! She reported the adults became perpetually mudded and being very confused about which food to put on Vora’s plate. She also wrote something like: ‘So let me get this clear, when you say ‘no’ you mean yes’ and when you say ‘yes’, you mean ‘no?’ – to which I remember Vora replied (correctly) ‘no’ and the adult tried to guess again. (I wish I had kept it).
It’s funny how things change. When I read ‘is not very bright’ that seems very ‘dodgily’ dated. There’s also a typewriter in one activity -which is just outdated!
Princess Saffy to the rescue (from Outside the Box 5-7)
I used this as a spoken word activity mostly – to get pairs of children discussing the magical ways the princes could be rescued – and anything was acceptable of course. Children’s imaginations can run delightfully wild if you let them! I like that one of the princes was trapped as a picture inside a book.
Frug Park (from Free Time Activities 5-7)
This activity appealed to children who liked maps and had good spacial awareness – although because ‘anything goes’ with creativity, if children’s pictures did not line up with the map, this was totally fine of course! I wish I had kept some of the pictures created.
The Free Time for ages 5-7 book reminded me very much of the original ‘Anti-Colouring Book’ that I was an absolute fan of. It was before its time and stood out! In fact, I think I could describe The Anti-Colouring Book as significant inspiration for the confidence to go wild with creativity! Here are a handful of activities from my Free Time 5-7…
Whigby By-Pass
There were also more serious activities within the Outside the Box (and Even More Outside the Box) series of books.
One quite involved activity was about whether a northern or southern by-pass should be built around a village. Children suggested the pros and cons of each route, they’d get in role as characters from the village to share their opinions and hold meetings and debate the by-pass, they would organise their campaigns, create persuasive posters, write persuasive letters, create a TV news report about the tensions in Whigby! etc.
I remember at the time of writing these eight books, my brain was whirring! I’d sometimes just wake up with ideas in my head and rush off to try them out. I’m not surprised as there are a total of more than 300 unusual ideas in these books.
I’ll finish with just one last example…
I also wrote some drama books with a mixture of activities. Here are two ‘warm up’ games children loved: miming buying and eating same unusual sweets and, opening and reading a book. In fact, I used to have to prevent my teaching assistants from wanting to join in a little too often!
