Storytelling Tips and Activities for Teachers

Librarians and Teachers

Until just a few years ago storytelling was an endangered art. Fortunately many insightful educators and librarians led what can best be described as a storytelling Renaissance.

By championing ethnic storytellers, helping promote storytelling festivals and most important, inviting storytellers into the school room and library, teachers and librarians have exposed a new generation of children to the fun and excitement of told tales.

But many challenges remain if we want to continue to breathe life into America's rich storytelling tradition. The biggest challenge is to inspire children to step out of the audience to create and tell their own stories.

Here’s where TallTales Audio plans to help. Please use the six stories we offer for free download in your classroom or library. And don't overlook our "Make up a Story" feature where we present the first few paragraphs of new stories and invite children to finish them. Because these stories put popular TallTales Audio characters in exciting situations we have repeatedly been told that children who have never before made up a story are excited to finish them. 

Over the next year, we plan to provide more suggestions, tips, and success stories that to help you help children succeed at storytelling. Please bookmark our site and check back in the months ahead as we develop new features and better yet email us your ideas. And for more ideas, don’t forget out our page with storytelling links.

Choose from these exciting, original kids’ audio stories.

Clem the Detective Dog
Ralphie The Gopher
Sheriff Daisy & Deputy Bud
Rainbow of the Sioux
The Monotonia Chronicles
Tibbodnock Stories
Fiona the Smart Ghost
Ivan the Not-So-Terrible
Nikki the Invisible Girl
Sarabel to the Rescue

“I love Clem. What could be more fun than the story of the bumbling detective Albert Muldoon getting outsmarted by a dog with a squiggly tail.”
— Brenna, Age 12, Walnut Creek, Ca

In the early grades show-and-tell exercises introduce virtually all children to the art of telling stories before an audience. Too bad, that for many children there is little further chance to tell original stories at school. Too bad because unlike reading aloud from a book or sharing a book report or essay or even participating in theater, telling an original story encourages a child to both create and orate, a combination of skills that will be hugely valuable in later life.

Because classroom storytelling takes time and doesn’t come easily to some children, it’s often ignored in today’s over-busy, test-driven schoolroom. Fortunately, there are efficient ways to resist this paint-by-the-numbers approach and encourage children to learn how to create and tell wonderful stories. Establishing a “Story of the Day” program is one of the best. Divided by age, here are some ideas as to how to succeed with this approach.

Story of the Day – K-3
Especially in the early grades, it can work brilliantly to assign each child a story day — a time when she or he will be expected to tell an original five- to seven-minute story. Because this will work best when parents are involved, you’ll want to begin by sending home a Story Instruction Sheet. This should include the following:

• A brief description of your story of the day program and why you believe it’s important.

• Length of story — Short is best.

• Subject matter — Recounting an exciting or funny personal experience usually works best for younger children, but it’s fine to embellish or exaggerate which, after all, are the stock and trade of  all good storytellers.

• Tips on story preparation — Ask children to focus on the basics — who, when, what happened. It also helps to describe key characters—was the dog black or white, shaggy or short haired. To conquer stage fright it often helps to outline key points on an index card.

• The need to practice — Children should be encouraged to tell the story at home at least several times.

• Encourage the dramatic — Compelling stories are almost always sold by their sellers, using tone of voice (high, low, loud, soft), sound (the creak of a door, the bark of a dog) and silence (the pause before the punchline).

At least a week before the first story is due, hold one or more story preparation sessions during which children pick a name for their story and think about its structure. For example, if Caitlin plans to tell a story about when her dog Petunia got lost on her family’s summer vacation, she’ll want to include the dog’s name, what she looks like, where the dramatic events happened, who discovered Petunia was missing, how she (Caitlin) felt, what was done to search for Petunia and, hopefully, how she was found.

The first time each child tells his or story, some children will have difficulty. But if you keep your storytelling round-robin going throughout the year, you’ll be amazed at how quickly all your students will improve and many grow to be delightfully proficient.

TIP. Every teacher is a storyteller: Assign yourself the first storytelling day and then, jump back in now and then with a fresh tale. This will not only provide you with a great way to demonstrate storytelling techniques, it will help you to bond with your children by sharing a few tales from your life.

Story of the Day – Grades 4-6
While most of the techniques discussed just above for K-3 students apply, students are now ready to make the big leap from stories about their own lives to fiction. At first this won’t be easy for everyone, but if you provide detailed instructions and tell a few fantastic stories of your own, it won’t be long before most catch on. Again, you’ll want to assign each child a story day and send home a story sheet explaining to parents what’s going on and what’s expected.

• Length of Story — Again short is best, no more than 7-10 minutes.

• Subject matter — Avoid student confusion and storytelling chaos by asking that all first stories be in a particular genre — for example, a mystery story that doesn’t involve weapons or killing.

• Story structure — Discuss how a mystery story is structured. For example, you need characters, a mysterious event (such as a disappearance or the theft of the Queen’s jewels), some clues including a red herring or two, clever detective work and a resolution – the more surprising the better.

• Classroom preparation — Before the first story is due, schedule one or more short story preparation sessions where children write the name of their story, identify and describe the main characters and briefly list the key events.

TIP. Create Your Own Mystery: Outline your own whodunit, then flesh out the characters and develop the plot. Then tell it to the kids with as much panache as possible. After the applause fades, explain how you put it together.

Click here for a list of web resources on storytelling.

©2007 TallTales Audio