Giving Presents

Giving Presents

The aim is to strengthen the belief among students that creative ideas may be developed through improvisation by using the phrase “Yes, and…”

1. The students are asked to pair up with someone who has the same-coloured shirt as them or one that is of a similar colour.
2. The teacher instructs the students in giving imaginary presents to their partners and responding to the receiving of a present with the phrase “Yes, and ...”. The teacher demonstrates this with a student. The recipient decides what this imaginary present is with the only limitation being the individual’s imagination.
3. The students take it in turns to give each other imaginary presents until the five minutes are up.
4. The teacher asks the students to reflect and discuss their experiences from this activity. For some, the imaginary aspect can be challenging. An exercise that encourages participants in saying “Yes, and…” while spontaneously coming up with an idea may be challenging. Therefore, the teacher can also emphasise that practising saying “Yes, and…” to what the other students offer and being positive towards one’s own ideas are essential skills especially when they must do this during the innovation process.

The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.