Tag: storytelling

Storytelling Stones

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I loved this beautiful storytelling idea I found, drawing on Native American symbols to tell stories, especially because it’s a way for pre-readers to weave sentences together and understand that different places and characters are the building blocks of a narrative.

I looked up a few easy Native American symbols online (based on my limited artistic ability!) and painted them on stones, and then let them dry before showing Travis. Together we looked at the website at what some of the symbols meant, and I arranged the stones for him.

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I put together our first story in a random order that popped into my head. He was quite intrigued, and asked for a few variations. With easy words like “sun”, “day”, “mountain”, “butterfly”, and “eagle”, it was easy to make up cute stories with simple plots.

Travis hasn’t been much into painting lately, so to my surprised then asked if he could paint the rocks! I asked if he’d like to make up symbols of his own.

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His “symbols” really meant covering the entire rock in white, but I asked him what “story” was happening on each rock, and he made up cute answers, drawing on the items that were around us in the kitchen.

Story stones (5)A great early intro to creative writing!

Story in a Bag

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You can engage your child’s imagination and storytelling ability long before he or she can read – you just need a few props to help along the way! This delightful game engages multiple senses, and helps foster storytelling.

Fill a brown paper bag with 5 or 6 simple objects from around the house. I used a bell, toy flower, candle, car key, and rock, filling the bag when Travis wasn’t looking so that the items would be a surprise.

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Prompting him to close his eyes, he reached in and selected one object at a time. We used the item to begin a story. After introducing the first item, he would select a second item, and so forth, each leading to the next action or character in the story.

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Admittedly I had to do a lot of the making up on this first go, but Travis was very into the idea and played with the items while we fabricated our tale. No sooner done than he started stuffing the bag and said, “Let’s do it again!”

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