The storytelling activities below are suitable for children from Nursery to Year 1 and offer an exciting and creative approach focusing on valuing and extending the children’s ideas and responses. The activities are designed to be used with existing or new stories.

Whoosh: Physicalising a story

The children become the characters and the objects in a story as the teacher tells it. This works well with both new and familiar stories. It encourages the children to listen carefully to the storyteller and interact spontaneously with their peers. The children sitting in the circle become the audience when they are not in the centre taking part. It is an active introduction to a story in which everyone is able to take part, works well with large groups and it is a practical and speedy method of exploring a story.

All the children sit in a big circle. The teacher begins the story and each time a character or key object is mentioned she points at a child or several children who must come into the centre and become that element of the story. Once that section of the story is complete a word like “whoosh” can be used to clear the space. All the children in the centre return to their seats and the story continues.

Pass it on

Players sit in a circle. The group leader will begin whispering a short paragraph including names and details into the ear of the player next to him. At the end of the story, the group leader says “Pass It On…” The next players then relays the story to the person next to him and so forth. No one is allowed to repeat what was said. Each player must speak clearly and each player must listen carefully to what was said. Encourage players to repeat what they “heard”. The last player stands up and relates the story, ending with “Pass It On.” The results are often hilarious. Following the activity, tell the original story and discuss what changes occurred. Discuss the evolution of the story and how stories change from teller to teller.

Story circle

Sitting in a circle each person tells a short part of a story and then passes the story on to the next person to continue. An object like a story scarf or stick can be passed around to give status to the storyteller. If a child struggles with their section of the story the teacher can freeze the game and ask a colleague to help them out. If a section is forgotten or overlooked it can be added later by using a prefix like “meanwhile”.

This technique can be used to retell stories that children know well. It can show how many different variations there are of famous stories. Older children can make up their own stories using this idea. This method of storytelling helps children to develop narrative skills, sequencing and encourages them to use descriptive language.

Soundscaping

To develop atmosphere and build belief, children can create the sounds belonging to a place, and chorally build the atmosphere with teacher as conductor

E.g. The sounds of a forest are recreated. The different seasons can be explored. Sound effects can include wind whistling, trees creaking, the sound of animals and birds etc

Storybags

Ask the children to think of a story that they like and know and to find objects in your setting that might help them tell it, such as puppets, fabric, toys etc. Children work in pai5rs to tell each other the story using the objects from their bags.

Shared mime

This is a way of creating a kind of script from the children’s ideas of a particular section of a story you are exploring together. Ask the children to all imagine the same part of a story and to think of what the character might be able to see or hear or describe the setting. Then move to how the events unfolded. Collect their ideas by scribing them on a large piece of paper in order before sticking the sheet up where you can see it. Clear a space in the classroom and ask the class to stand in a space before putting on some suitable atmospheric music. Narrate the section of the story you have all just talked about using their ideas as your bullet points or script mixed in with some of your own ideas as you all mime together what is happening.

An example might be all becoming Hansel and Gretel as they try to escape from the witches cottage in the dead of night. You might ask the children to imagine how they avoided waking the witch or how they escaped from the cottage or what the witch did when she found them missing. It is often easier for you all to be the same character moving in the space at the same time. The children are copying but with enough openness to move as they want with you modeling.

Why don’t you send us examples of what you’ve created? You can e-mail us here.