My Literacy lecturer (Catherine Bleasdale) used a fantastic prompt with us yesterday. We had a box with five items in, which we had to build a story / play around.

We only had 10 minutes to do this, and would need to give children much longer. But it is a good basis for discussion, language development, drama, role play and creative writing- adjusting the task to the relevant age group/ ability.

It's a great imagination stimulation as well.