Let’s consider, for a moment, the importance of including creative, communicative and collaborative work in our primary language lessons.  

 Why? Well, because we don’t even know the names of the job titles that our young learners will have in the future. But, to co-work (and compete) with an AI workforce, it’s very likely that our students will need to be flexible, adaptable, imaginative, open-minded and innovative. It would be great if they were also skilful team players – confident and articulate enough to communicate ideas and opinions and able to listen to those of others! Yes, it’s a tall order…  

With those thoughts in mind, let’s explore how short, fun, out-of-the-box, time-out activities can begin to help our young students along that developmental path. In tandem, let’s also assess our own roles as ‘instructor’ versus ‘educator’.