"Ten in Bed" was a project led by participatory arts organisation Phakama, in partnership with Queen Mary University of London. Over an eight-week period we ran a series of intermedial arts workshops and staged a performance with under five-year-olds and their families at a community centre in Bethnal Green, London. We attempted to enhance creative and communication skills, which are a key feature of critical literacy. In this article I use Lars Elleström's "modalities" to parse the project's material, perceptual and social aspects and to consider the ways in which the intermedial process operated affectively to develop critical literacy skills.