Starter
What is a story? A story can be true or pretend, where we tell or re-tell about an event or a journey or an experience or what we know or what we are thinking. Did you know that we are surrounded by stories every day. Where do you see stories? Books, TV, school, songs, pictures, movies. When you tell me/a friend about something that happened to you, you are telling a story. Can you think of the last story you heard? Think hard: it may be something you just heard a few minutes ago! This week, we are going to have fun thinking about and doing lots of different kinds of stories. Today we're going to start with books.
Choose 2-3 20-30 minute activities from the selection below:
Story Hunting
Kid/s choose a book each.
Scavenger Hunt: Kids find 5 items around home that are in their book.
Memory game: Player 1 places all 5 items in front of them. Player 2 needs to close their eyes while Player 1 takes away an item. Player 2 opens their eyes and has to guess which item is missing. Keep playing and taking turns between players. Then start to take away 2+ items for guessing.
Treasure Hunt: Younger kids: hide the items around the house and play ‘hot and cold’ as you find them.
Older kids: Draw a treasure map of your home/specific room. Kids hide the items around home, plotting their location on their map. Swap maps and find the treasures (either between the kids, or as a team with the parent)
Story Path
Tape a long piece of paper on the floor and draw a path of sorts. Take out loads of stickers, markers etc and then the kids draw around it from their imaginations. As they go along the path, you can add speech bubbles and little bits here and there and ‘build’ a story along the path. You can talk about beginnings, middles & ends and how plots 'work'. (Thanks to Dannii B- Mazor!)
Also try Book Cover Art: choose a book and recreate the front cover, eg
Story Collage
Grab a bunch of old magazines, newspapers, junk mail flyers, etc, and cut out pictures to prompt storytelling. Ideally let them select a range of items on their own. Use the completed collages as the basis for a simple story, asking kids to tell their own story from their finished masterpiece. If they are unsure how to begin or continue, use simple prompts such as:"Once upon a time there was…""One day…""And because of that…""Until…""And, finally…"Your child’s stories might start out very short and simple, but the more you share storytelling experiences, the more confident they will become.
Make Your Own Story
Online with sesame street characters
OR generic
(Print or take a picture of the stories they create, to use for 'Show Day')
How to Draw A...
Books also have pictures. Go to ‘Art Hub’ and go wild with searching for whatever you would like to learn to draw. Takes you through the process very well and you can pause as you go.
Short Stories
2-3 minute story clips with prepared pre- and post-clip d post-game activities. Can be done online and with printables.
Indoor Active
Cosmic Kids Yoga:
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Harry Potter
- Other classics such as Gruffalo and three little pigs via the Cosmic Kids app.
Outdoor Active
Go for a walk/scooter, bike ride - guess shapes of the clouds.
Social
Zoom with family or friend and read a story together (same book)