Tutor Courses
FAMILY STORIES IN A BOX
Courses
Resources
History
Learning how stories are linked to objects in the home Learning about other families and their traditions Exploring how objects in the home and in the museum are connected Developing family stories to support literacy learning Completing learners’ own family stories in a box
| Topic | Content |
|---|---|
| 1. Every object tells a story | Introducing the idea of objects telling stories. Choosing objects to talk about. Linking objects to stories. Guessing stories linked to objects. Discussing importance and value of some objects, e.g., sentimental, historical, relational, memorial. |
| 2. What objects are special to you and your family? | Guessing the owner of the object and the story behind it. Sharing stories linked to objects. Writing up descriptions of chosen object. Creating a timeline. |
| 3. Games and songs from the past | Matching photographs of games to their names. Discussing similarities and differences in children’s games and songs and discovering the universal themes. Reviewing choices of material for the box. |
| 4. Local museum visit -1 | Preparing for the visit. Visiting the museum’s website. Preparing questions for museum curator. |
| 5. Local museum visit – 2 | Visiting a local museum. Feeding back impressions and findings. |
| 6. Starting your own box | Reviewing choice of objects for box. Discussing museum labels. Practising labelling. |
| 7. Practical – two sessions | Decorating the box. |
| 8. Writing labels | Writing labels/descriptions/stories. |
| 9. Showcase work | Display (in centre/museum) for other learners to view achievements. Record/photograph display. |
Tutor Tips:
The tutor should be aware that some objects will have great emotional significance. Drawing up ground rules about sensitivity and confidentiality within the group is strongly recommended.
Websites
This course is partly based on an outline available on the website below:
www.everyobjecttellsastory.org.uk
Topic 2: What objects are special to you?
Materials:
Large bag to put each mystery object in
Tutor’s own mystery object
Worksheets created by tutor with writing frame to describe objects
Set of homemade cards with adjectives
| Task | Suggested Activities |
|---|---|
| Guess whose object? | Put everyone’s mystery objects in large bag, keeping identity of owners secret. Invite learners to take turns drawing an object out of bag, describing it, guessing the owner and making suggestions as to why it is special to the owner. Share the real stories. Invite discussion around how children might enjoy choosing their own special object and talking about why they chose it. |
| Describing the object | Give each pair of learners an object and a set of cards with describing words, e.g., delicate, useful, traditional. Encourage the learners to match adjective cards to objects. Record descriptions on worksheets using writing frame. Suggest learners take a writing frame home for their children to write a short description of their favourite object. |
| Timeline | Create a timeline to illustrate and compare objects’ ages. Invite the learners to guess how old the objects are. Draw a timeline on the board from present day to age of the oldest object. Model for learners and draw tutor’s own object onto timeline. Invite learners to come up and draw their objects onto the timeline. |
Literacy Links:
Using narratives to describe items.
Giving specific details and information
Linking objects to people.
Reading short texts linked to objects
Decoding words for meaning
Using writing frame strategy to form descriptions of objects
Matching words to objects
Numeracy Links:
Estimating skills
Interpreting data and applying to timeline
Understanding relationship between numbers
Basic maths operations, more than, less than, older than, younger than