Storytelling is an ancient art form, crucial for life. Stories support cultural education, instil moral values and develop imagination. In our classrooms, embellishment, improvisation or simply reading straight from a book are essential for children to develop their own creative talents.
Telling stories is often difficult to begin with. Even a seasoned writer can find it difficult to think of something to write about. Thankfully, the Internet is jam-packed with ideas to get your little ones thinking about the important elements of storytelling. We’ve rounded up some of the best. And don’t forget Pobble 365 has a free, ready-made story starter, every single day of the year!
Here are 5 creative strategies to get children storytelling:
Get the children to make their own, or pre-make them yourself. Story stones are a wonderful and versatile way to get your children to write. Give each child a few stones to base a story on. Have them hunt around to find them before writing. Or create a whole class story with each child adding their selected stone to their creation.
Story dice are easy to make and great for helping your kids to create a structured narrative. Roll one dice for a setting, one for the main character and others for more details. Here’s how to make them.
Good story prompts are sure to inspire some fun stories. Fill a jar with attention-grabbing starters and have the kids pick one out to continue. You’ll find example sentences here.
These are perfect for retelling a story, inexpensive to make and easy to adapt for a variety of characters. Best of all, these are so much fun for putting on a puppet show with. We especially like these Gruffalo spoons.
Story sacks are a great resource for extending a narrative. They comprise a large bag with props and materials relating to a story. Ideal for developing children’s communication skills. They enable the children to talk to others about the story. This Room on the Broom story sack is a great example.
