One great thing about being in a network is the tips you pick up. Here’s a game I learned from a colleague in SOPHIA, and some examples from the P4C Thursday group which I coordinate.
Ask two students to each tell you a word – any word (start with nouns). Join the two words together and say the new made-up compound word out loud to everyone. For example, Student A says sun and Student B says sofa, so you say ‘sun-sofa’.
Then challenge everyone to think of what the new word could mean. The Thursday group came up with:
A sofa outside in the sun.
A sofa made from the sun!
It’s what the sun sits on at night!
Here’s another example. ‘Ring-rabbits’ generated ideas including these:
They’re rabbits who hold the rings at weddings!
It’s when you see rabbits sitting in a circle having a lovely picnic in a meadow.
Ring-rabbits are the rabbits trained to fight in the boxing ring!
You can then move on to invent compound words using abstract nouns. Ask everyone to write down an abstract noun or concept, then put two of them together. What could this new word mean? For example, ‘joy-courage’…
It’s the courage to show that you’re joyful when you’re surrounded by miserable people.
It’s courage to let go.
It’s the feeling when you go on a scary rollercoaster!
