50+ Storytelling Ideas

I’ve always loved being drawn into a great book. I also enjoy writing and creating stories myself. My son (age 2.5) is at the perfect stage for storytelling. He walks around with his cars, stuffed animals, and other toys setting scenes and talking about their actions. Whether he’s retelling events that have happened to him in real life or making up fantastically improbable stories, he is practicing language skills, and his imagination is hard at work. I’ve collected 65 storytelling ideas from around the web. I hope you will be inspired to try some of them!

Start Here

When looking for storytelling telling ideas, I believe the best place to start is at A Mom With A Lesson Plan. Jill shows you how to tell stories and how to teach your kids how to tell stories. I guarantee you will be inspired.

Teach storytelling to your kids by writing love stories.

Learn how to make storytelling cards {how to have your kids make them}.

Learn how to use storytelling cards {once the cards are made, here are tips for using them}.

Basic Storytelling for Toddlers – this is my favorite post – learn how to tell stories about your little ones.

Story Bags

Add wooden pieces from the craft store to your story bag. {This Little Project}

Allow the children to place objects in a story telling bag. {Teach Preschool}

Gather objects from around the house for your story bag. {Carrots Are Orange}

Story Stones

How to use story stones. {Teach Preschool}

Hand paint pictures on your story stones. {Small Potatoes}

More beautiful mod-podged story stones from Happy Hooligans.

Make story stones with fabric and mod podge. {Red Bird Crafts}

Storytelling through Drawing

Tell stories as you draw on an easel. {Childhood Beckons}

Record events of each day on a story stick. {The Butterfly Jungle}

Add our Scrap Paper Storytelling to your list of things to try.

Use fingerprints in your drawings to tell stories. {mama smiles}

Draw scenes, add stickers, and tell stories. {The Imagination Tree}

Act Out Storybooks

Act out Goldilocks and the Three Bears. {The Imagination Tree}

Create a play from a great story. A Mom With A Lesson Plan uses the book Too Many Fairies for their drama.

Design a storytelling pathway. {Fairy Dust Teaching}

Play dough is the ever versatile pretend play material. Use it to fill in missing supplies when retelling a story.

Learn with Play at Home retells the story of the Donkey and the Wolf with play dough.

Create a model of a storybook character. The Imagination Tree recreates the Gruffalo.

Use 3D materials to introduce children to Bible stories. {Living Montessori Now}

Set the Stage

Retell familiar stories by creating your own props or gathering props from around the house.

Create a Goodnight Moon storytelling basket with toys and other items.

When kids start to reenact a book on their own, give them props to complete the story. See our Ah Ha! storytelling basket for an example.

Check out this small scale retelling of the 3 Little Pigs from Reading Confetti.

A Mom with a Lesson Plan sets the room to recreate the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Decorate train tracks to create scenes and stories. {Rebeakah from The Golden Gleam guest posts on Childhood Beckons}

Make stuffed animals the stars of your stories. {Simple Play Ideas}

Set the scene by drawing doors that look like they have stories to be told. {Sun Hats and Wellie Boots}

Build a shadow puppet theater. {Inner Child Fun}

Story Boxes

Did you ever make a diorama as a kid? A story box or diorama is a 3D recreation of a scene. Use story boxes as the backdrop for retelling your favorite stories or create brand new scenes to go along with brand new stories.

Create a duck pond and sing “5 Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day.” {The Imagination Tree}

Move the parts of your story box around using velcro. These velcro story blocks make a wonderful travel toy. {The Nature of Grace}

Here’s a twist on a story box: make a doll suitcase with changeable scenes. {Hart & Sew}

Story Boards

Create a story board with stickers. {Carrots Are Orange}

Writing Stories

Fill in the blank story telling. {Kids Activities Blog}

Write down the stories your children tell. {Carrots Are Orange}

Set out fun eraser figures to inspire stories. {Imagination Soup}

Start with stamps to create stories and then write about it. {Melissa & Doug}

Other Story Starters

Make story cubes. {Red Ted Art}

Use a balloon with words to tell a story. {A Mom With A Lesson Plan}

Use pictures you find in the clouds as a basis for your storytelling. {Childhood Beckons}

Create story magnets from comics you are ready to recycle. {Sun Hats and Wellie Boots}

Make a storytelling jar. {Honey Bee Books}

Try to tell the worst story ever. {Melissa & Doug}

Make story starters using wooden discs, paint, and stamps. {Red Bird Crafts}

Tell stories with your child’s crafts or art. {Red Ted Art}

Storytelling Tips

10 tips for making up stories from Childhood Beckons. My favorite tip: Let go of perfection.

10 tips for telling stories from No Twiddle Twaddle. My favorite tip: Tell a story using your kids artwork.

7 ways to practice storytelling from Carrots Are Orange. My favorite idea: Make up your own song lyrics.

Step by step storytelling from Imagination Soup.

Make Your Mark ebook – 30+ Projects to Promote Writing and Storytelling

Make Your Mark will help you take the simple act of sharing stories and stretch it to help your child develop confidence and compassion. Through play, art, language, writing and storytelling activities this book will help your child discover himself and make his mark on the world. Learn more here.

 

The Stories Continue

You can find these wonderful storytelling ideas on my Storytelling board on Pinterest. Be sure to follow along as I find new ideas. Inspiration Laboratories is also on Instagram and Facebook.

What storytelling ideas do you have to add? Please share in the comments!