Ages 8 to 11

Boxing clever is a story-making game that can be used across the primary sector. It develops early oral awareness of story structure and appeals to kinaesthetic learners by physically involving them in making their story.

To set it up, you need eight boxes with the following labels on the outside, and pictures inside:

Who? (pictures of people)

Where? (pictures of houses)

Where next? (pictures of cities or countryside)

Why? (no pictures here, but blank pieces of paper, for the children to write why the character is making the journey. A good starter question is: who are they going to see?)

What goes wrong? (pictures of bad weathera firean accident)

Who helps? (pictures of people)

Where last? (pictures of any location)

Feelings (pictures of a happy or sad character)

Pupils take a picture from each bag, stick them on display sheets and then tell or write the story. This helps build the confidence to tackle more complex story forms

Alan Peat is a literacy consultant specialising in raising writing standards.