Many of our students need opportunities to practise raising their voices when they’re talking to people further away. This activity will help them.
In a large space such as the school hall, place some coloured beanbags at increasing distances away from the pupils doing the activity. Then agree some phrases to say, and have the pupils practise saying the phrases to each beanbag.
For example, if pupils are preparing to lead an assembly, they could practise saying: Welcome everyone. Today our assembly is about….
Pupils will get used to how it feels to use each volume, and become better able to choose the appropriate one.
Discuss which beanbag represents which situation, for example yellow = talking to a partner, red = speaking to the whole class, blue = speaking to the whole year group or school.
Practise starting with different beanbags so that pupils get used to starting at all the different volumes and then switching between them.
Reducing social pressure
Because your pupils are only talking to a beanbag, this activity removes much of the social pressure and allows them to focus solely on controlling their voices. (In terms of the Oracy Skills Framework, it isolates the physical oracy skills from the social & emotional oracy skills).
