Task

Think up some activities for your workshop. Note down as many ideas as you can. Things to keep in mind:

  • Keep people interested. You could do this by making sure they work in different group sizes, on their own, in pairs or as a whole group. Another way is by making sure the activities are varied – one activity could involve writing and the next could involve discussion. It’s also a good idea to vary the length of the activities.
  • Make sure you think of activities that fulfil your aims. If your aim is to get a group to make friends and work as a team you might want silly and fun games, but if you are more interested in exploring a serious theme then perhaps there could be more discussion and thinking time in the tasks.
  • Work to your strengths. Do you have talents you can share that will help people learn? Maybe you’re a poet or a rapper, maybe you have great hand-eye coordination. It helps to create workshops that allow you to celebrate your strengths so that you feel confident.

If you’re stuck for ideas for workshop games, here are a couple of Freyja’s suggestions to get you started:

Games and activities for workshops can take many forms. There are many books and websites with examples you can use. One of the easiest ways to create your own games is to take a game or activity that already exists (such as Tag or Catch) and adapt it.

Tag

If you look at this playground game there are plenty of ways you could adapt it. Are you creating a ‘space-themed’ workshop? Maybe instead of running, everyone moves in slow motion as if in low gravity. Are you trying to create some movement for a performance? There could be different music playing in the background that affects how everyone moves.

Catch

I use catch (or various versions of it) in so many workshops, sometimes with a ball, a scrunched-up piece of paper, or a jumper tied into a knot. Catch can be in a circle, a line or while everyone is moving around the space. You could add sounds or words, for example people could say their own names or the names of people they’re throwing to. Sometimes catch can be as simple as adding a quality of movement or an intention to how people are passing the object, for example: everyone passes as if it is a delicate flower, an unwieldy pet, or a disgusting piece of litter.

Your turn

Here is an extra task. Take a simple game, maybe one you’ve played before or one you remember from childhood. See if you can think of different ways to adapt it. You could even try and theme it to fit with the workshop you’ve created.