Stand-up Silly - Interactive Story Time | Activities

This simple, interactive activity gives children an opportunity to be silly, creative and expressive while also encouraging them to think on their feet!

Be ready to hear some interesting short stories in this circle exercise!

This is a reusable activity that can be adapted as well to any theme you may be running in your classroom. All you need a few name cards to hold in front of the children as the story is being told. A fun twist on name cards is to have the children take some silly selfies that can be used instead. This will be shuffled, and will indicate who’s turn it is to talk.

This story-telling game a great way to get your students' minds working, but also get a big laugh out of everyone!

As the teacher, you can guide the children with some questions to drive the story to a successful ending, without it being drawn out too long. You should be able to get about 5 stories told in one 20 minute play session.

Materials

For this Activity you will need:

Cue cards with children’s names/selfie photos. There should be one card for each child who is participating.
Enough space for children to stand in a semi-circle, so that they can see the teacher or leader holding the cue cards

Learning Outcomes

Domain

Language

Skills

Conversing

Indicators:

Adapting messages to the needs of listeners

Instructions

Step 1:

Have all of the children stand in a semi-circle, and choose a leader to stand in front of them with the name cards/pictures of only the children who are participating. The teachershould also stand up in front of the children, holding up the name cards in a single pile for the children to see.

Step 2:

Ask the initial playful questions set up the story

Step 3:

The child who is at the front of the card pile gets to start telling the story aloud

Step 4:

Here’s where it gets fun. The teacher can decide when to change to the next card, and that will signify the next child’s turn to continue the story. The leader can switch the names quickly, or slowly, or mix it up! They can even shuffle the cards every now and then to keep it interesting!

Step 5:

Let the children collaborate to tell the story until the end! It might be helpful for the teacher to give them some guidance in case the story needs to be driven with more direction! Ensure that the ending makes sense.