Storytelling Activities

2nd grade
Propus de prof. Oana Gheorghiescu
Şcoala Gimnazială ''Miron Costin'' Bacău

• Storytelling with movement

Children enjoy to participate in the story in a dynamic way. Encouraging children to make a
specific gesture when they hear a certain word or to perform various actions mentioned in the
story is very engaging. For example, in Little Red Riding Hood, children can pretend to carry
baked goods in a basket, to be the wolf, or make a squeaking sound when a door is opened.

• Story sequence

The aim of this technique is to read and order a familiar story and collaborate in a group. We
can use it to consolidate a story that children are familiar with.

▪ Divide the class into groups of four. Give a set of sentences (in jumbled order) to
each group.

▪ Children arrange the sentences in the correct order.

▪ Check the answers by inviting individual children from different groups to take turns
to read the sentences in order.

▪ Ask one child in each group to collect and shuffle the sentences and distribute them
randomly to each member of the group (2-3 sentences for each child). The child who has the
sentence Once upon a time ... should begin reading the story clearly to the rest of the group.
Then the child who has the second sentence should read it, and so on.

▪ The children reshuffle the strips of card and repeat the procedure. The aim is to take
turns to read the story as a group as fluidly as possible.

This activity gives children practice in reading aloud in a collaborative, non-threatening way.
It also fosters active listening and turn-taking.

• Picture the story

Children describe a picture from the story and predict what happens in the story before and
after the moment in the picture. This creates interest and attention in listening to a story.

▪ The teacher shows children the picture and asks them to describe it. They predict
what happens in the story before and after the moment in the picture. The teacher asks
questions to stimulate their ideas.

▪ Once the children have elaborated their ideas about the story, the teacher says Let's
listen and find out!
 ▪ The teacher invites the children to compare what happens in the story with their
predictions.

▪ The teacher asks them what they think the moral of the story is.

• Role-play/acting out

Interpreting stories as role-play can be as simple or complicated as you like. It could start with
miming basic actions, then speaking or improvising dialogue. In the classroom the teacher
will need to be organised in advance with moving furniture, providing simple props etc. Read
or tell the story to your young learners, exploiting the visuals and asking questions
throughout. Make sure the children understand key words for the story e.g. Goldilocks, bear,
porridge, bowl, chair, bed.

Once children are familiar with the story, they could act out a play version of Goldilocks. You
can download masks of the three bears and Goldilocks, and you could also collect a few props
for use in acting out the story e.g. bowls, spoons, cushions as ‘beds'.

Doing a role play between two or more characters in a story help children think and act
creatively and collaborate in pairs or groups. They use any language they know and the
teacher can write question stems on the board for the children to use as prompts during the
role play, e.g. Have you got ...? Do you like ...? Are you ...?

Although children may be hesitant at first, as they grow accustomed to the technique they
become increasingly willing to experiment in using language in creative ways to express their
meanings. They also develop in confidence and self-esteem.

• Story circle

Students take turns to retell a familiar story by passing a ball or scarf round the circle. They
say either a sentence or word building up a story around the circle. They can use sentence
starters e.g. once upon a time. If children get stuck, they can say Pass! and give the object to
the next person in the circle. As children tell the story, be ready to help if necessary by asking
questions. When children have finished telling the story, invite them to express their opinions
about the story, e.g. I like ... but I don't like ... / My favourite part of the story is when ...

References

1. Read, Carol (2007): 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom, Macmillan Education,
London.

2. www.teachingenglish.org.uk