Join in with the ‘Bloomfield Talks’ team or create your own oral history project. Here are some well-tested ideas and useful bits and pieces to get you started. You won’t need any special equipment…

Click on the icon for each activity to reveal instructions and downloads.

Activity Number 1: My Minute is Different to Your Minute

This activity is great for a larger group of people, age 8 and above.

1. Get your group of folks together and choose a single minute from the period of time before you next all meet together. For example, a minute would be, say, 11.45 – 11.46 on Saturday morning. If you are a social group that meets every week, choose a minute between meetings when each group member is elsewhere. Or if you are a school class group, choose a minute before your next class together, when everyone is somewhere different.

2. Ask every member of your group to describe in words and/or drawings, everything that is going on around them during the chosen minute, using the printed downloadable worksheet as a prompt (you could stick it to an A4 envelope for them to return their documentation in). The minute might elapse while they are on the bus, watching television, in the park. Everyone’s minute will be different!

3. Ask everyone to bring their written/drawn descriptions with them the next time you meet as a group. When the group meets, have everyone show present what they’ve done and then make an exhibition of the new material.

Download PDF file: One Minute Workpack Cover.pdf (36k)

Activity Number Two: Ten Jokes Each

This activity is great for a large and small group of people, age 8 and above.

1. Get your group of folks together and, making use of the downloadable Jokes Workpack Cover and Joke Sheets, ask them to collect ten different jokes from ten different people and bring them back when you all meet again.

2. Every member of the group who has who brings back a full ten jokes from ten different people wins a prize.

3. Every member of the group reads their jokes one at a time in sequence. Then everyone votes on the best joke and the person who collected it gets another prize! Make an exhibition of the Joke Sheets.

Download PDF files: Jokes Workpack Cover.pdf (36k), Joke Sheet_01.pdf (36k) and Joke Sheet_02.pdf (36k)

Activity Number Three: Favourite Objects

This activity is suitable for one or more people working alone or together.

1. Talk to an older member of your family/carer/grandparent about an object that has significance to them. Ask them to describe the object and why it is meaningful to them.

2. Using the downloadable worksheet, record what they say using writing and/or pictures.

Download PDF file: Favourite Object Worksheet.pdf (36k)

Activity Number Four: Postcards Home

This activity is suitable for individuals or groups working as individuals. If you’re a group, ask everyone to undertake the activity and then bring all of the responses together to share them.

1. Get in touch with a friend or relative who has moved away. Ask them to send you a postcard describing what they see around them every Monday at 12.00 for four Mondays in succession.

Activity Number Five: Favourite Song

This activity is suitable for small groups.

1. Everyone in the group takes turns to sing a version of their favourite song. Everyone else listens and then asks them why they like it, where they first heard it and who it’s by.