Simple Storytelling Tips for Parents
- Learning Resources Posted On Jan 28, 2021 | Learn
Storytelling isn’t hard. You might think you can’t tell a story, but you tell them all the time. When you tell someone about your day, when you talk about a movie you saw, and even when you tell a joke. With these simple storytelling tips for parents, you’ll find easy, fun ways to bring storytelling to life for your child.
Simple storytelling tips for parents
Storytelling is about answering questions and letting your imagination go. What if…? questions are especially good, and the more bizarre, the more children will love them. What if dogs could fly? If your shoes were made of cheese? What would happen if a mouse saw you on the way to school? Would it chase you? Would it try to eat your shoes? What would happen next?
Yes/no questions work, but prompting questions that start with who, what, where, why, and how will help you create an engaging storyline though active participation. Try these:
- How does this character feel?
- What happens next?
- Why did that character say or do that?
- What would you do if someone did or said that to you?
Image: Getty
Creating stories by combining ideas
Get your kid to finish questions such as “wouldn’t it be great if…?” (rain was made of chocolate), “if you could have a superpower, it would be…?” (flight), “if you could go anywhere, you could go to…?” (the Moon). Put those answers together and you’ve got the start of a story: your child is flying to the Moon, but chocolate rain gets in their way. Then you follow it with the classic storytelling go-to question: what happens next?
Don’t worry about making sense
You aren’t creating a bestseller. The stories you and your child come up with can be weird, wonderful, even confusing. The focus should be on having fun. If something in the story doesn’t make sense, you can gently ask your child to explain, but don’t push it. They’ll learn this in time. Focus more on the emotional elements such as how did that character feel, how would you feel if that happened to you.
Simple storytelling tips and prompts to try today:
- Tell your child a story about them when they were little, such as the day they were born. These stories provide rich emotional links and will keep your little one engaged.
- Tell your child a story about you when you were little.
- Create a story with your child as the main character or adapt an existing famous story with your child as the star.
- Use physical prompting aids such as Plot Blocks Story Building Activity Set.
- Give characters different voices to make them come alive.
- Don’t be afraid to use vocabulary your child doesn’t know. Storytelling is a fun way to grow your child’s language skills.
- Serialise your stories. Once a storyline has run a natural course, transplant characters to a new “what if?” scenario and start the process again.
- Tell stories everywhere – it’s a great way to keep kids occupied at the dinner table or on a car journey, and more.
Read more on why storytelling with your child is a fun activity to do every day, and get great ideas to encourage your child's creativity.
Useful links:
Main image: Getty
Storytelling isn’t hard. You might think you can’t tell a story, but you tell them all the time. When you tell someone about your day, when you talk about a movie you saw, and even when you tell a joke. With these simple storytelling tips for parents, you’ll find easy, fun ways to bring storytelling to life for your child.
Check out other related content on our blog:
Simple storytelling tips for parents
Storytelling is about answering questions and letting your imagination go. What if…? questions are especially good, and the more bizarre, the more children will love them. What if dogs could fly? If your shoes were made of cheese? What would happen if a mouse saw you on the way to school? Would it chase you? Would it try to eat your shoes? What would happen next?
Yes/no questions work, but prompting questions that start with who, what, where, why, and how will help you create an engaging storyline though active participation. Try these:
- How does this character feel?
- What happens next?
- Why did that character say or do that?
- What would you do if someone did or said that to you?
Creating stories by combining ideas
Get your kid to finish questions such as “wouldn’t it be great if…?” (rain was made of chocolate), “if you could have a superpower, it would be…?” (flight), “if you could go anywhere, you could go to…?” (the Moon). Put those answers together and you’ve got the start of a story: your child is flying to the Moon, but chocolate rain gets in their way. Then you follow it with the classic storytelling go-to question: what happens next?
Don’t worry about making sense
You aren’t creating a bestseller. The stories you and your child come up with can be weird, wonderful, even confusing. The focus should be on having fun. If something in the story doesn’t make sense, you can gently ask your child to explain, but don’t push it. They’ll learn this in time. Focus more on the emotional elements such as how did that character feel, how would you feel if that happened to you.
Simple storytelling tips and prompts to try today:
- Tell your child a story about them when they were little, such as the day they were born. These stories provide rich emotional links and will keep your little one engaged.
- Tell your child a story about you when you were little.
- Create a story with your child as the main character or adapt an existing famous story with your child as the star.
- Use physical prompting aids such as Plot Blocks Story Building Activity Set.
- Give characters different voices to make them come alive.
- Don’t be afraid to use vocabulary your child doesn’t know. Storytelling is a fun way to grow your child’s language skills.
- Serialise your stories. Once a storyline has run a natural course, transplant characters to a new “what if?” scenario and start the process again.
- Tell stories everywhere – it’s a great way to keep kids occupied at the dinner table or on a car journey, and more.
Read more on why storytelling with your child is a fun activity to do every day, and get great ideas to encourage your child's creativity.
Storytelling With Your Child
Storytelling with your child is a great way to expand your little ones imagination, and also a great family time activity. Here's our guide to getting started.
READ MORE
New Ways to Play: Plot Blocks™ Story Building Activity Set
- 18 picture cubes; six each of ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘how’
- Six double-sided Setting Mats
- Four transparent story setting Mats
- Story telling
- Creative and descriptive writing
- Understanding a story’s structure
- Imagination
- Vocabulary
- Speaking & listening
“A fabulous resource to develop understanding and use of ‘narrative’ and story- telling. The visuals were superb at supporting the logical sequencing of events to enable students to a) plan and then b) tell their narrative. One of the most useful aspects of this resource was that it could be used with a huge age range. EYFS students would like the cubes and pictures, my KS1 and KS2 children loved it. I could also see it working well with EAL, KS3 and older students and adults withlearning difficulties.â€Read more about how Belinda used Plot Blocks in our Tried and Tested blog post.
To help you extend the learning with Plot Blocks, we’ve put together some ‘new ways to play’ that will help you bring your story telling to life and spark young imaginations:
Feely Bag Game
Place all of the cubes into an opaque fabric bag. Working in a pairs or small groups, ask children to pick a cube from the bag and study one of its faces. They should describe what the picture is without actually naming it. Encourage them to use a wide range of adjectives until another child correctly guesses what the picture is. This will build vocabulary and encourage children to use richer descriptive language in their creative writing.
Talk for Writing
Working individually or in pairs, ask children to select six cubes before rolling them and placing them on a setting mat. Encourage children to discuss a possible story, considering the beginning, middle and end where each cube’s picture might feature. Pair work will enable children to discuss ideas, developing their vocabulary and imagination.
Group Story Telling
Working in a small group, ask each child to select a cube before assigning them a number or sitting them in an order. (Try to ensure an even number of each cube type is on offer). The first child rolls their cube and begins telling the story. The second child should then roll their cube and continue the story accordingly. Encourage children to consider the role they play in forming the beginning, middle or end. Carry on around the group until a complete story has been told!
Descriptive Writing
Encourage the use of rich, descriptive language by using the setting mats alone. Ensure each child has access to a whiteboard and pen before allowing them to select a setting mat. Ask them to study the scene on the mat for a couple of minutes before helping them write a sentence that describes it on the whiteboard. For example ‘The Sea is Blue’. Encourage children to build on their initial sentence by adding in more vivid language until they have a description using rich vocabulary, for example ‘The calm sea is sparkling turquoise.’
Change of Scenery
Children work individually or in pairs to create a story using a setting mat. They should roll six cubes and place them on a setting mat before reading the story aloud, adding in as much description as possible. Once a story has been completed, change the setting mat but keep the story cubes in the same order. How does the story change? Discuss how the setting affects the plot of the story.
Cube Swap
Working in pairs, have children create their own story using a setting mat and six cubes. Both children in the pair should read their story aloud. Once each pair has heard the other story they get the chance to steal a cube from their setting mat to add to their own story. Once they have done so, have the children decide upon the order of the cubes on the mat. As the children to read their stories aloud again and see how changing one cube affects the plot.Blank Spaces
Ask children to sit in groups around a table. Lay out a setting mat and three cubes (one each of who, what and how), leaving three blank spaces. Encourage the children to write their own story, filling in the blank spaces as they reach them. Once everyone has written their stories, have them take it in turns to read them aloud. This task is a good way to ease children into creative writing, providing guidelines but still offering them creative freedom.
Character profile
This activity can be used as an extension to any Plot Blocksâ„¢ activity. Once a child has completed a story, ask them to think more in depth about the characters. Ask them to draw the characters in the story and write down some characteristics. Encourage them to think about things such as names, occupations, likes/dislikes, where they live etc. In groups ask them to tell their peers about these characters.
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Tried & Tested - Plot Blocks™ Story Building Activity Set
How did you use the product?
1:1 in a quiet speech and language therapy session, school based.What was the agerange of the children you used it with?
I used these cubes and composite picture cards with KS1 children – aged 6 - 8 year olds as well as a Year 4, 9-year-old.What are the benefits of the resource?
- Very portable – strong, well made picture cards and I put the cubes in a draw-string ‘feely bag’.
- Some familiar and some less familiar scenes which promoted further discussion.
- A fabulous resource to develop understanding and use of ‘narrative’ and storytelling. The visuals were superb at supporting the logical sequencing of events to enable students to a) plan and then b) tell their narrative.
- I used this resource with individual students, but I can easily see how this would be a fantastic resource for group therapy as well; it would encourage and target turn-taking, social skills, focus, eye contact, listening to others, negotiation, vocabulary, narrative, higher level thinking, asking questions and inference…all in one!
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Resource Review – Benefits of the product
- This resource was so interactive, fun and tactile!
- The complete and clear pictures, with good size cubes to roll (for smallish hands). The cubes have a lovely tactile feel that my students really liked.
- I think I would like some more familiar or everyday scenes for younger children eg; fair/zoo/park/football pitch/classroom etc.
- Â Although there were suggestions for ideas how to use the resource, which were easy to follow, I was able to use further ideas and/or customise its use with individual children easily i.e. using less cubes initially.
- The colour coding of the cubes was excellent (as was having the crib sheet on the back of the instructions).
What is the long term appeal of the resource?
One of the most useful aspects of this resource was that it could be used with a huge age range. EYFS students would like the cubes and pictures, my KS1 and KS2 children loved it. I could also see it working well with EAL, KS3 and older students and adults with learning difficulties.Is the product unique?
The idea of story cubes isn’t unique, but coupling them with the overlays is. Very ingenious.READ MORE
