Warmup activities for young writers

July 13, 2008 4:20 PM

Looking for interesting, not cheesy, ideas to get 8th-10th graders warmed up for an afternoon of writing and discussion.

I'll be leading some warm-up activities at a writing camp next week for 13-16 year-olds. I'm looking for ideas for some simple, quick activities (< 15 minutes) that'll get everyone up and interacting with each other. Freewriting and get-to-know-you type exercises are already planned, so something physical, not necessarily writing related, would be best.

posted by lunalaguna to Education (10 answers total)

I have a great idea that I learned in a workshop for teachers of writing. Break students up into groups of 5 to 8. Give each person a different photograph of a person, preferably a magazine advertisement with a sheet of paper paperclipped to the back. Then ask the students a question about the person and give them one or two minutes to write one sentence. For example: What does s/he do for a living? Where does s/he want to go on vacation? What does s/he do for fun? What is s/he afraid of? What was his/her most embarrassing moment? After they write the sentence, everyone passes their photo clockwise and you give them a new question to answer. Don't give them enough time to read what other people have written on the paper; keep it moving at a brisk pace. By the time everyone gets their original photograph back they can take turns sharing what everyone has written about their subject. Be ready to hear about a lot of crossdressing and sex changes because teens love that kind of shit.
posted by HotPatatta at 4:43 PM on July 13, 2008

Here's another:
Write down a bunch of words on post-its that are different in degree but related. For example: scalding, burning, hot, warm, simmering, tepid, cool, lukewarm, brisk, cold, freezing, frigid. Give one word to everyone. Everyone stands up and works together to put the words in order on the wall or chalkboard. It's called a linear array. They all have to discuss why they think the words should be placed in a certain order and negotiate the placement with their peers.
posted by HotPatatta at 4:48 PM on July 13, 2008

One of the middle school elective drama class favorites was was a game my teacher called Death By. It encouraged quick thinking and creativity. Before you started, everyone in the class got to write a random object on a slip of paper, and then we put all these things in a hat. To play the game, we sat in a circle and told a story, one sentence at a time. If you hesitated before starting the sentence, or said uhhh or umm or started the sentence with "and" or "then", you'd have to be killed. (Sometimes we did a classification game, like words with double letters, and if you couldn't think of one when it got to you, then you had to be killed.) Anyway, to kill the person, the teacher would draw one of the pieces of paper from the hat, and say "death by [whatever the paper said]." It's better if the kids don't know before-hand that these random objects would be killing them. So, it was always hilarious when you had something like "death by baby doll" or "death by bath towel." The person being killed would have to act out how he got killed by said random object. We had to do it without talking, but of course this is open to interpretation. It's a really silly game, but it forces you to think fast.

The "death by baby doll" was especially funny, since it was around the time that those cabbage patch kids started eating kids' hair...that's what one of my classmates acted out.
posted by phunniemee at 4:58 PM on July 13, 2008

My go-to icebreaker with any age group is, "26 Things You should Know About Me." It gets interesting after about #13.
posted by Riverine at 5:21 PM on July 13, 2008

Here are some fun improv games, there's probably something here that can warm up any crowd.
posted by storybored at 5:37 PM on July 13, 2008

This game is particularly relevant to fiction writing.

Have each person come up with 2 or more notable events from their past. One of them must be a lie. The objective is to describe all events as convincingly as possible; afterward, everyone else tries to guess which one is the lie.
posted by Yoshi Ayarane at 6:24 PM on July 13, 2008

Response by poster: Great suggestions for writing and creative activities, but I'm really looking for more active, physical things for the kids to do to get warmed up. Any thoughts?
posted by lunalaguna at 6:49 PM on July 13, 2008

1) This is only slightly active but requires focus: 1 chopstick per pair, each person makes contact with the chopstick with only index finger. The pair moves around as they wish, balancing the chopstick the whole time (its actually harder than it sounds).

2) "Ninja" - everyone gets in a circle, with one person in the middle. The people in the circle are ninjas, they trade places with each other only by making eye contact (no noises, talking, gestures). The person in the middle will try to catch them and sneak into one of the places that is empty (and then the misplaced person goes in middle).

3) "Get to know you game" - everyone in a circle, with spots marked (chairs, tape, etc) so that there is one less spot than the number of people. One person is in the center, and he/she says their name and something that is true about them "My name is___ and I love to ride my bike" Anyone else in the circle for whom this is true leaves their spot and has to go to a new one (so could have 0-everyone moving). The person in the middle tries to find a new spot. Whoever is left without a spot goes in the middle and says something true about themselves. If using chairs, best to keep them standing, and just use the chairs as placeholders.
posted by hazel at 7:18 PM on July 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

I played this game at the beginning of a leadership weekend in high school: (it would work best with a group of 30+, so this may not be a good fit for you)

We were instructed to walk about the room, and listen for orders such as "Favourite toothpaste", "Place you'd most like to travel to", "favourite subject", and then group ourselves accordingly within 30 seconds or so. This involved a lot of yelling, running around, scrambling for paper/pens to make signs, and general communication work. During the exercise, we obviously also got to know who we had most in common with. You might be surprised how telling it was of who you'd be hanging with most for the weekend.
posted by sunshinesky at 7:27 PM on July 13, 2008

I got a book of questions "Would You Rather..." and posted one question per day. Some are a little gross (I was working with younger kids so those were not my choice!) but things like "Would you rather be in a cool dark place or a warm light place, why?" and everyone had to write then share. This taught the group a lot about each other and themselves and they enjoyed the process. I liked making them think and I always did the journal too so they could hear my perspective as well.
posted by sisflit at 9:36 PM on July 13, 2008