Read all about it

Newspapers. We read them, perhaps read them again and even a third time before we throw them away. But we used to light our fires with them, or line our floors with them before carpeting. We even ate our fish and chips from them! However, the fact remains that a newspaper is probably one of the cheapest and most economic resources we can have in our play setting, especially if we ask parents and carers to donate them regularly.

Here are some interesting and unusual games and activities which may help you to use play as a recycling process for old newspapers.

NEWSPAPER ART

. Storyboards

You will need:

* Wide selection of newspapers and/or magazines

* Scissors

* Glue

* Large coloured sheets of paper (A1 or A2)

Encourage the children to cut out pictures and words and stick them to the paper to make their own storyboards. These could be standalone stories like you find in 'teen' magazines, displaying a sequence of events with either speech bubbles, newspaper text, or both, or they can be part of a collaborative group project set to a theme or topic.

Storyboards are a great tool for participatory work with children and young people and are often used for carrying out consultations, but they can also represent an introduction to other activities. For example, making a film, or for children who prefer to make a visual rather than written story.

Window art

You will need:

* Selection of newspapers

* Bin liners

* Scissors

* PVA glue

* Glue brushes

This activity involves making a newspaper window collage which can be themed or random in content. First you will need to cut the bin liners until you have a large flat area.

Second, tear out bits of newspaper that interest you and place them on to the bin liner to form your collage. Once you have the basic layout, coat the bin liner in PVA glue and stick your pieces of paper to it, remembering to ensure they all overlap, and then coat the entire collage with glue.

Leave until fully dry and carefully peel away the collage from the bin liner. Trim the edges with scissors and there you have a newspaper collage which can be stuck or hung on a window.

If you can get hold of newspapers produced on the days that children and young people were born they make ideal mementos.

NEWSPAPER GAMES

Paper fashions

You will need:

* Ten large sheets of newspaper per pair

* A lot of imagination

Ask children to get into pairs and ask them to choose who wants to be a model and who wants to be the fashion designer. The object of this game is for the designer to make and dress the model in an outfit which consists of a top, bottom, shoes, headwear and one accessory.

The rules are that they have to use all ten sheets of paper in their design and they can't use any means of attaching the paper other than by 'the model's' existing clothing, therefore no tape, string or paper clips are allowed.

Once the outfits are made and models are fitted, each model has to parade on the catwalk without any of the paper clothing falling off and without holding it on by hand.

You'll be fascinated by the creativity and imagination used in this activity and some of the designs. I've also found this activity to be useful as a teamwork tool when working with playwork students, so don't be afraid to introduce it at your next training workshop or group meeting as it makes a great ice breaker.

Musical squares

You will need:

* One newspaper sheet per player

* A stereo

* Funky music

* A large empty area to dance in

This is a game which I am sure many of you have probably played. Place the paper randomly on the floor and ask players to dance. When the music stops they have to run and stand on a sheet of paper alone. When the music starts again they get off the paper and start dancing around the floor, but this time you remove one sheet of paper so that when the music next stops one player will be out. Continue this until there is only one sheet of paper left and a winner.

Flapping fish

You will need:

* Newspapers

* Scissors

* Tape

Another popular game, I'm sure. From a sheet of newspaper cut out a large fish shape and then roll a whole newspaper up with one end wider than the other to make a fan - it is best to fasten the thinner end securely with tape to form a handle.

You will need two fishes and fans if this is to be a team game. A player from each team competes to get their fish to the other end of the room and back again by flapping their fan just above floor level to cause a draught.

Continue until all players have been and a team wins.

This is best played on a wooden or polished floor.

NEWSPAPER DRAMA

Kidnapped!

No doubt you'll often find yourself being coerced into playing a role in children's fantasy, imaginative or socio-dramatic play, which regularly entails playing an evil villain, in my case a character called 'Dr Death'

which was coined by some children a few years ago.

Being a villain, however, often involves being gagged and tied to a chair, dragged to a makeshift courtroom and sentenced to some gruelling death for a crime you swear you didn't commit, and it doesn't end there either. You find yourself being resurrected to go through the entire ordeal again, this time with drastic changes to the script involving outlandish accusations and an even more gruesome execution.

Being a resource for this type of play is extremely valuable to the players and newspapers can be as well. For example, in this type of enactment they can be used to make ransom notes, wanted posters or even kidnap letters, or they can even remain as they were intended as part of a prop collection.

Either way, newspapers can support dramatic type play with endless opportunities.

Changing the story

You will need:

* A clock or timer

* A wide selection of newspaper headlines

* A tape recorder

Newspaper headlines are particularly good for exploring the flexibility of storytelling.

Place the headlines upside down in the middle of a table. As a group activity, encourage each player to take it in turns to pick up a headline until they have all been distributed evenly. Ensure players do not get to see each others' headlines.

The activity begins when one player lays down a headline and starts a story based around its interpretation, but at any point another player can interrupt by laying down their own headline and therefore continuing the original story with the new headline, and so on until all headlines are used and the story ends with the last headline placed on the table. This is particularly interesting if the story can be recorded and played back to the players, and even more fascinating if the headlines are redistributed and played again to see if an entirely new story can be created.

If played regularly a variation could be that no player knows what their headline is going to be until it is placed, which increases the game's excitement and spontaneity.

NEWSPAPER BRAIN TEASERS

Touch me if you can!

For quite a number of months on a Monday during snack time I would set a 'Monday challenge', which consisted of some form of brain teaser or conundrum and which proved very popular.

One example is to place a single sheet of newspaper in the middle of the floor and ask the children to work out how two individuals can stand with their feet on either end of the newspaper but will find it impossible to touch each other. Give them 30 to 60 minutes to figure out the answer.

The answer is that if the sheet of newspaper were placed under a door, with each individual on either side of the door it would be virtually impossible for them to touch each other.

Philip Waters is a lecturer and researcher in playwork, based in Cornwall