Scrap Paper Storytelling

Ideas for storytelling can come from many places. Storybooks, toys, clouds, photos, and imagination are just a few examples of inspiration for stories. How about inspiration from scrap paper drawings? Aiden loves playing a drawing game where I draw something and he says what it is – shapes, letters, numbers, etc. I switched it up and asked him to tell me what to draw. And thus was born scrap paper storytelling.

Aiden tells me what to draw and then we talk about what’s happening.

Here is the story behind the picture above.

Me: What do you want me to draw first?
Aiden: sun
{I draw a sun.}
Me: Okay. What next.
Aiden: A cloud.
Me: What is happening with the cloud?
Aiden: It hides the sun.
{I draw a cloud over the sun.}
Me: Then, what happens.
Aiden: It rains.
{I draw rain drops.}
Me: What else is going on?
Aiden: A bird flies.
{I draw a bird in the sky.}
Me: Where is the bird going? 
Aiden: She sees her babies in the nest.
{I draw the ground. I draw a tree with a nest and some baby birds.}
Me: What should we add next?
Aiden: I don’t know.
Me: How about a river?
Aiden: Yeah!
{I draw a river.}
Me: Okay, what is happening near the river?
Aiden: There’s a bear on the other side of the river. 
{I draw a bear.}
Aiden: The bear has an umbrella.
{I draw an umbrella.}

And we continued this back and forth until we filled the page and Aiden didn’t want to play any more.

I wrote down the story as we created it. Here’s how the whole story for our drawing goes.

The sun is shining. Then, a cloud comes along and hides the sun. It begins to rain. A bird flies across the sky. She sees her babies in the nest. The bear is on the other side of the river waiting for the rain. He has an umbrella. Boats are floating on the river. Someone is fishing. The tree is blowing in the wind. Another umbrella is out, too. Two people are at a campfire. A turtle hangs out by the river.

Scrap paper storytelling makes a great waiting game. All you need is a writing surface, a writing utensil, and imagination. Don’t limit yourself to paper. Use dry erase boards and magnetic drawing boards. Change up your writing utensils, too. Use pens, pencils, crayons, markers, etc. If your kids are old enough, have them draw parts of the story.

Have you and your kids ever told stories with your drawings?

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