Teach your child to tell a story
Storytelling is a simple, fun, and interactive activity that your pre-school child will love! Whether real or imaginary, your stories will come alive. Model these storytelling games for your children and eventually, your child’s own creative stories will come alive too. If you are not experienced in making up your own stories, you will be surprised that it is quite easy. The simplest story can be interesting as long as your story has one character, one problem, and one happy ending.
Story Scrambles. Sit down with your child with twenty-five slips of paper and five empty containers. Ask your child to think of five places, encouraging them to be creative and to think of both real and imaginary places. They will have more trouble with the imaginary places, so feel free to give them some examples like, “The Lake of Crystals” or “Buddrock, the Land of the Exploding Volcanoes.” You may want to start with only real places your child is familiar with, such as “my bedroom,” or “the park.” Write each place on one slip of paper, and place the five slips of paper in one of the containers.
With your child, come up with five heroes, five villains, five problems, and five solutions, writing each on a slip of paper. Place each in its designated container. Heroes and villains can be anyone from Dora the Explorer to a turtle.
If your child is having trouble thinking of some problems, ask them questions to help them think of some. You might ask something similar to, “What could happen if I lost my keys?” and “What problem would we have if the sun disappeared?” Or, you can ask your child to name problems from other stories your child knows.
Once you have your 5 containers filled, have your child pick one from each. Tell your child that you are going to tell them a Story Scramble! Using your imagination, tell a story with a beginning, middle and end. Use the five pieces of a story that your child picked. Eventually, your child will want to tell his own Story Scrambles!
Note: If your child is too young, you can come up with the setting, heroes, villains, problems, and solutions on your own and simply have your child pick them during storytime.
The Bag of Magic. Collect a hodgepodge of ordinary objects, such as a brush, sock, crayon, tissue, or straw. Put the objects into a bag (one you cannot see through). Explain to your child that, once upon a time--a long, long time ago--the things in this bag were magical! Have your child randomly pick one item from the bag without looking. Once the item is picked, tell your child, “This (the object picked) was once magical, a long, long time ago. Do you want to hear the story? Then, tell the story about the object. Use your imagination to think of ways in which the characters could have used this magic object to solve their problem. Or, you can think of ways in which this object may have been the source of the problem. Your child will have a blast. They won’t look at a brush, sock, or straw the same way again! (A variation of Dianne de Las Casas, “The Magic Story Bag” from The Story Connection)
The Never-Ending Story. For this activity, you can use classic folktales, fairy tales, or other stories that you know. Pick one story and begin telling it to your child. Stop at the story’s most crucial moment. Your child will be at the edge of his seat wanting to find out what happens next. But, don’t give it away. The next day, finish the story and then begin a new one, stopping at a crucial moment. (A variation of Heather Forest’s “1001 Nights Festival” Story Arts Online).
Picture People. Put together a picture album designated for storytelling, or simply use picture albums you have already compiled. Look for pictures that really capture the emotions of the moment. Children are fascinated with their mommy and daddy’s childhood pictures and the pictures of other people in their lives like grandma or their friends. Use these pictures for inspiration and create a story around the picture, adding as many fictional details as you like. The same rule applies that the simplest story will have one character, one problem, and one happy ending.