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Story Making: Early Literacy Through Play

Story Making

Why story making ?

In the classroom, our stories can connect us.  Sharing a story is an opportunity to express issues, hopes, and fears. Stories honor and empower student voice and identity.  Story making is one way ALL students can feel seen, heard and valued at school.

Literacy skills begin to emerge when you lean into the play that is integral to story making.  Listening to and telling stories help children see the way in which a story develops, they naturally discover story structure and sequence. They also learn the purpose and power of a strong vocabulary and the richness of adjectives as they describe the settings and add actions.

When we provide frequent opportunities to create and tell stories we help children build the oral language skills foundational to reading and writing.

Helpful resources:

What questions can we ask to go deeper?

Story Making Questions

What questions can we ask to learn the stories?

My Story – thinking map

Recommended teacher resources:

New Possibilities for Young Writers

Story Making: The Maker Movement Approach to Literacy for Early Learners

Story Making Sequence:

Inspire ~ Create ~ Share ~ Expand  

Inspire:

How can we inspire story making?  By engaging interest and inviting curiosity!

-share or model a story

-read a story, or poem, or play a piece of music

-ask an inquiry question

-offer varied materials for story creating

Create:

Using the purposeful provocations to retell or create stories…

Share:

Sharing stories with educators, with peers, in groups or as a class…

Extend:

Adding labels, drawing a picture, writing, collaborating…

If you would like to learn more about bringing story making to life in your classroom please connect with us here.