I really like the story making activity. Story making activity challenges children to think and try making things plausible. The activity can help developing vocabulary, speech, reasoning, expressing as well as creativity.

You may think story making is too hard for preschoolers or toddlers. But that’s not always true!😮 We can make modifications here and there and make it easy for young children. Actually the dramatic play that most parents are familiar with can be a means of story making. Let’s say a child is pretending that she is cooking in the play kitchen. Adding a character or giving a situation to the child’s simple imitating action can make her react and produce an event or a plot. Learning might not be very visible here but this kind of extension of play certainly provides children more opportunities to think and be creative.

Another good way of practicing story making is just asking children to bring their ideas and make a story.

😛Yes, this instruction will be good enough for children who are imaginative and love making up a story, however, most children will find it difficult to understand and won’t know what to do.

So here is my tip.

Start with a warm-up activity.

The book ” Lost for Words” by Natalie Russell is perfect to introduce story making activity to young children who are not familiar with the activity.

Tapir, the main character in the book, has pencils and a notebook but he doesn’t know what to write. After he watches his friends writing words easily, he gets sad. He spends some time alone quietly and slowly starts drawing things instead, thinking about his friends. By seeing his drawing, Tapir realizes that story doesn’t always need words because a drawing can say everything.

This story can teach young children that a drawing can tell a story and encourage them to try making their own storytelling art.

After reading the book together, suggest making a storytelling art. Give white papers with some drawing materials like pencil crayons, crayons or markers in many different colours.

You can ask questions like these to help start thinking.

Drawing Prompting Questions

• When is your favourite time during the day?
• What makes you feel happy?
• What did you do on the weekend?
• Who is your favorite person to play with?
• What is your favorite toy?
• What is your favorite food?
• What are you looking at now?
• What do you want to do today?

Encourage children to take some time to think about the questions.

If it seems like nothing is coming to your child’s mind with these prompting questions, you can try using some prompting pictures.

Drawing Prompting Pictures

You can first draw some simple things or shapes on the paper; Don’t show your child that it is YOU who drew them because s/he might want you to finish the picture.

Give the paper with prompting pictures to your child.

Ask to finish the picture using their imagination.

“Look at the picture on the wall. Maybe this is a child’s room. How about we draw a girl in the room?”

“Why there are so many triangles? They look like spikes on dinosaur. What do you think they can be?”

• 

• 

If you would like to use my prompting pictures, you can download them here.

Creativity needs practice. Give a lot of opportunities for your children to practice creativity with this simple activity.

Have fun learning!

Missangela👩🏻‍🦰🎀