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Five Minutes Peace - a story about an elephant family and the mum trying to get some alone time


Five Minutes Peace by Jill Murphy and published by Walker is a very relatable story about Mrs Large (the mum elephant) who would like five minutes peace away from her three children. It's a lovely book. The story is fab, the pictures are beautiful and at some point everybody needs to have a bit of alone time. I have blogged about the Large family before and it was one of my very first posts. These stories have a special place in my heart as I read them as a child and I am now able to share them with my son who loves the stories too.


I thought that I would do this post slightly different and do some activities that last 5 minutes as these would go along nicely with this book.


  1. Alphabet game - name as many items/animals/foods/drinks etc. starting with each letter of the alphabet. This can be done verbally or you could do them in a team and write them down. Don't forget to set a five minute timer. If you want it to be a bit competitive then you can add a score. 2 points for each answer if it is different from the other teams but only 1 point if another team have the same answer. This activity is fun because it can be done inside or out and about.

  2. Five minute art - provide lots of different materials; pens, paper, glue, scissors etc. and then give your child/children five minutes to make a picture. You could give them a theme if you wanted or an object/animal etc. to make or do a picture of.

  3. Have a discussion or make a list with your child/children what they could do/play with if you need to have five minutes peace and how important it is that people get alone time when they need it.

  4. Naming game - set the timer for five minutes and choose a topic and see how many you can name as a team in 5 minutes (or individually for older children). Some topics could be animals, foods, words beginning with a particular letter etc. or you could go more educationally and do science, maths or geography words.

  5. Would you rather - kids love this game and it can get imaginations running wild. You ask someone would they rather questions, for example, would you rather have four hands or four feet and the person has to answer and say why. You have to choose one or the other which is what makes it so fun.

  6. Five minute exercises - as a family you could do 5 exercises each for a minute each. You could each choose one or more exercises that everyone has to do. Don't forget to set the timer and this might be something you want to add into your weekly routine.

  7. Tidying up game -see how much can get tidied up in five minutes. This can be fun but also you can use it when you need your child/children to help you tidy up.

  8. Icing biscuits - get some icing pens and some plain biscuits and let your child/children decorate their biscuits. This is fun, can be done at a snack time or for pudding and doesn't make too much mess. You could challenge them and get them to do letters or numbers or draw an elephant like the ones in the story.

  9. Hot potato - outside you can use a ball or inside use a beanbag or small cuddly toy. Stand opposite each other or in a circle (if there is enough of you) and count down from ten whilst throwing the ball/beanbag/cuddly toy to each other. The last person to touch or hold the thrown item when your count down reaches zero is out. This is a good game for learning to throw and catch quickly.

  10. Guess the hidden item game - hide some items in some boxes or bags so that the item can't be seen and then get your child/children to guess what is in it. You could always get your child/children to do this game for you too.




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