Spinning Stories
Grab any household items. You can grab as few or as many as you’d like. Aim to have at least a minimum of one item for each person to use. Each item will be used as a character in a story. For example, you could grab a bunch of socks or a handful of toy dinosaurs - in fact, why not both? The possibilities are endless. If you have actual puppets, those can be great props too.
After providing everyone with at least one prop, act out a story or series of events together with your little one(s). You can reenact a familiar story/sequence of events, such as what happens in the popular Baby Shark Youtube Video or what happens in the story of Humpty Dumpty. Alternatively, you can make up your own story from scratch. Lastly, you can choose to do a combination of the two - start with a familiar story while throwing in your own creative edits throughout the tale. If you are making up your own bestselling story from scratch, here are some optional starting scenarios you can use:
Millie and her dad, Mr. Johnson, run into a bunch of monkeys on their walk in the park. Then, ... [Continue]
Troy and his mom, Ms. Brown, suddenly wake up to the sound of their neighbor wrestling a coyote. Shortly afterwards, ... [Continue]
Note: It’s okay if your props don’t match the physical appearance of the characters they are meant to represent. For example, if you have to pretend that a toy dinosaur is Cinderella for the purposes of this activity - that totally works.
Pause during parts of the story, and encourage your little one(s) to continue the tale. Ask them, “What should happen next?” You can ask them to make up their own series of events (if you’re making up the story, partially or fully) or they can continue the story as it is usually told (if you are reenacting a familiar story). You can even choose to give them new props to add to the mix, and ask, “How should these new characters fit in this story?” It’s like their own directorial debut.
Using a familiar story can be easier in many cases. To make the activity less difficult, you can ask your little one(s) the following question: “Out of these options, which story would you like to act out? Cinderella? Snow White?”
On the other hand, creating a story from scratch can make the activity more challenging. To ramp up the difficulty, aim to make up the whole story completely from scratch.
Increase (to make it harder) or decrease (to make it easier) the percentage of storytelling that your child does. While watching you tell the story can be beneficial to your little one(s) because of the observational learning that can take place, them practicing their narrative skills themselves may be even more useful and definitely makes the activity harder/more active for them.