Speech bubble activity ideas
1. Character conversations
Choose two characters from a book you are reading, and encourage children to create a conversation between them, using speech bubbles to record what they say to each other. This could be used to further explore an event that has already happened in the story, or, you could suggest a situation that the characters might face in the future. This activity could be done in pairs, where each child takes on the role of a different character. For older children, it might be more challenging to take on the role of both characters (and perspectives) themselves.
2. Talk to a character!
Give children the opportunity to 'interact' with a character at a specific point in the text. Enourage them to ask questions or offer advice - what would they do in the character's situation, and why? You could give children speech bubbles on post-it notes, which can then be stuck in the appropriate place on the page.
3. Give words to a non-speaking character/animal
Sometimes, there are characters in a story who do not speak. Ask children to infer what they might say if they did speak. Again, children could use speech bubbles on post-it notes, and stick them on the page next to the non-speaking character.
For all of the above suggested activities, you might find this FREE Speech Bubble Template pack useful.
4. Use within cartoon strips
This can be a fun way to get your children to summarise or retell part, or all, of a story. This FREE Cartoon Strips Template is a perfect resource for this activity.
Speech bubbles can also be an effective way of developing children's social communication skills. They could be used to explore how children would, and should, respond in a variety of different social situations, e.g. if a person said this to you, what would you say back?
Our FREE Text Message Template could be used for this type of activity with KS2 children.
