Storytelling is a wonderful way to build creativity and imagination in your students. How can storytelling activities be beneficial in the classroom? There are so many ways!
- inspires purposeful talking
- raises enthusiasm for reading texts
- initiates writing
- enhances community
- improves writing
- engages students
Want to see how each of these activities work? Watch the Storytelling Activities video on my YouTube page:
Storytelling Activities
Storytelling Cubes
Storytelling cubes are a great game to help develop imagination and creativity. Students will roll the cubes and use the images to create their own unique tale.
Simply print out these free storytelling cubes and assemble. Decide how many cubes you want each student or group to have. Then each student rolls them. Using the cubes as a guide, they incorporate as many of the images into their story as possible.
The storytelling dice can be used to orally tell a story (great for even the youngest kids!) or write out a story on paper.
Act it Out
Break students into groups. Provide them with a well-known story (i.e. The Three Little Pigs). Have students choose roles and act out the story together! Props and costumes could be added to make this activity even more fun.
If you wanted to take this activity up a notch, have students perform using a Reader’s Theater script. This will help build students’ confidence and reading skills.
Prompts in a Jar
Print out these storytelling prompts (or create your own). Then fold them up and place in a jar or container. Each student pulls out a strip from the jar. They can use their prompt to either write a story down on paper or tell the story out loud to the class.
Spin a Story
Spin a story gets the whole class involved! Have students sit in a circle. One student will start the story with 2-3 sentences and they will pass the spinner to the person next to them. That student will spin and add a few sentences to the story. Continue until everyone has had a turn! (if it comes to an end or gets too silly, a new story can be started)
Draw a Story
This activity combines both drawing and storytelling together. Pair students up or place them in small groups.
- Each child draws a short story.
- Exchange the drawings and try to “read” the story that was drawn (or come up with their own).
- The original artist can then share the story that they had created with their drawing.
Encourage students to included at least one character in their drawing. It is also helpful if they draw the setting on their paper as well.
The purpose of this activity is not to draw the best picture or to be right/wrong about what is in the illustration. It is to have fun and be creative!
Story in a Box
Collect a bunch of random objects in a box. Then display the contents for students to see. Students need to come up with a story based on all the items that are in the box. This can be done orally for younger students or a written story for older kids.
During these storytelling activities, students can sometimes get stuck. It is helpful to have a few questions to help move story along. Here are a couple to start with:
- what did you see?
- what can you hear?
- do you smell anything?
- who else is there?
- what does the room/space look like?
- how do you feel?
- where did you go?
Want any of the storytelling templates that I used in this post? Click below to grab them for free!
YES! I WANT THE FREE STORYTELLING ACTIVITIES!
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