Welcome to the Playful Activity Library! We invite you to explore this curated collection of active, playful activities designed for use in adult education settings. This library supports our playful learning community by showcasing inspiring practices, sparking new ideas, and encouraging collaborative connections. We welcome all forms of playful approaches—whether it’s a quick icebreaker, a creative classroom activity, or a fully developed board game. Whatever your contribution, we’d love for you to share it with the community!
Fortune tellers (sometimes called chatterboxes) are a common paper-based game used in childhood. They bring a sense of nostalgia and students (or staff depending on your audience) engage very well with this playful activity. I’ve used them to help staff think about their strengths as educators or with students to think about their employability skills or even module content or learning outcomes. The ‘making’ of the teller is just as important as ‘playing’ the reflective game because the participants create bonds, share stories and help each other where people have not seen the childhood game before. Jim Thompson and I have also created a ‘playful interventions’ version to challenge staff to enact something playful in their next teaching session. You can read more about this approach in the link and download a template to use yourself.
Emma Gillaspy & Jim Thompson
University of Lancashire
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Small (30 or less), Large (30 – 500)
Interaction, Physical Play
Sharing, Reflecting
Free to use and adapt