Follow-up activities

Story sequencing

In this activity students are encouraged to collaborate to recall a familiar story,

illustrating the key stages and retelling it to their classmates.

Instructions:

1. In groups, students decide on the key stages of the story they are going to
illustrate. Stronger groups of students should be encouraged to think of more
stages (this provides differentiation).

2. Hand a piece of blank paper to each group and ask them to draw lines to divide the
paper into equal-sized boxes. They will need one box for each key stage of the
story, so if a group has more stages it might be better to give them several pieces
of paper so they have enough space for their drawings. (Alternatively, you could
pre-make these before the class and hand them out to groups.)

3. In each box, students draw a picture to represent the key stages of the story.
Depending on the level of the class/group, they could write a sentence (or more)
underneath each picture to describe what is happening.

4. Students take turns retelling the whole story with the others in their group, using
the pictures and words to help them.

5. Students then cut up the page and divide the pictures equally between the
members of the group.

6. The group works together to retell the story for their classmates, with each member
reading out their part and showing their pictures in the correct order.

7. The pictures can be kept in an envelope and used again in future lessons. (You
might want to write a number on the back of each picture for later reference.)

‘Lift the flap’ book

In this activity children learn the meaning and form of words in context by creating
illustrated flaps to cover key words in a book.

Instructions:

1. In groups, the children each select a word from a page of the book and copy it on
to a piece of paper. (Monitor to make sure the chosen words can be easily
illustrated and that the whole group understands the meaning of each word; you
 may wish to give groups specific pages from the book to look through, so they
don’t all choose the same pages/words.)

2. Divide the words between the members of the group, so that students have a
different word to the one they initially chose. Ask them not to show the others what
they got! Give each student one Post-it note.

3. Each students should cut up their Post-it note to create a flap to stick over their
word in the book (but don’t stick them on the book yet!). They should then each
draw a picture on the Post-it to illustrate the meaning of their word.

4. Students show their drawings to the others in their group and see if they can guess
the word.

5. Stick the Post-it notes over the words in the book.

6. Choose someone to be the ‘teacher’ and read the story to the class.

7. When the storyteller reaches a flap, he or she should stop and show the drawing.
The other students should call out the word, and the storyteller can then lift the flap
to see if they are right.

Storyboarding

In this activity children retell a familiar story, and then the teacher takes photos to
create a storyboard.

Instructions:

1. After reading a short story out loud, put the children in groups.

2. Students should choose between 5–10 key moments in the story, and then
recreate those scenes using their bodies and/or other props. (Note: Depending on
your class size and the time you have available, you could either ask each group to
choose and recreate their own key scenes, or choose the key scenes as a class
and assign one or two to each group.)

3. Take photos of each scene, upload them to the computer and print them out. (You
may want to print each image on to white paper with some space below it, if you
want students to try step 5.)

4. Within their groups, students can then put the images in order and take turns to
retell the story to each other.

5. With guidance, students can write sentences below each image and staple it
together like a book.
6. A shortened version of this activity is to photocopy images from the story (laminate
if possible to make them more durable), mix them up, then hand them out (in sets)
to groups. The groups then have to put them back into the correct order and retell
the story. It can be made into a race, with points awarded to the group who finishes
correctly first.

How do I plan a storytelling session?

1. Preview the book and decide if you need to adapt the original text or not.
2. Decide what language you’d like to focus on. This could be key vocabulary
in the story or a phrase or structure that you’d like the kids to acquire.
3. Choose activities for before and after the storytelling.
4. Practise telling the story.
Pre-storytelling activities
There are many types of activity that you could do before the storytelling itself.
There are some suggestions below. First, I usually ask myself two questions:
1. Is there any key vocabulary that I want to introduce to the kids before
the story? You might want to focus on key vocabulary so that they are
more able to participate in the storytelling session itself. Even if they are not
able to produce the language yet, they will be more likely to recognise it
when it comes up.
2. What are the dynamics of the activities? You will want the kids to be
ready to sit down and give you their attention during the storytelling stage.
They won’t be able to do this if every activity leading up to it is teacher
centred. If all of your activities have required them to listen and follow
instructions, they will be less willing to continue listening to you during the
storytelling too. Think about where you are asking the kids to direct their
attention. It might be towards a puppet, towards each other in a game or
song, or towards flashcards or items in the room.
Flashcard games:
 Mystery box/bag: Place pictures or flashcards of key story language in a
bag. Chant, “Mystery box, mystery box, what’s inside the mystery box?!”
Each child takes turns to take out a picture and show the others, while you
give the name for them to repeat. Do some dynamic drilling in different
voices and paces, e.g. saying it slowly, quickly, quietly, loudly, in a deep
voice, high voice, like a monkey, like a cat, in a silly voice etc.
  What’s missing?: Reveal and drill each flashcard in turn, placing them
somewhere where the children can see. A circle usually works best. Gather
up the cards and shuffle them. The kids tell you to “Stop!” Place the card
facing you, behind your back (or sit on it!) so they can’t see. Reveal and drill
again. The kids tell you what’s missing. You can award the card as a prize.
Repeat the process until the selection of cards dwindles. By that point, they
will have seen the new vocabulary A LOT!
 Run and Point: Place the flashcards on a board, wall or around the room.
Do this one by one, drilling the new language as you go. Organise the kids
into teams. When you say the word/phrase, the first person in each line runs
to point to the correct image. You can also do this whole class, rather than
teams, if you place the cards around the room, with kids taking turns to be
teacher (with you helping of course!)
There are endless games you can play with flashcards! Whichever, one(s) you
choose, try to have them placed so that the kids can see them during the
storytelling. They can be very useful prompts for the children during the storytelling
stage. For example, they can use them to predict what’s next or you can prompt
them for the words/phrases to join in.
Songs
Sing a song together that revises some of the story language or invent your own!
Adapt a song you already know to fit in with the vocabulary you want to practise.
For example, I adapted Super Simple’s ‘Open, Shut them’ song to include the
adjectives from Dinosaur Roar.
TPR (total physical response)
This is obviously a great option for stories that focus on parts of the body and
actions. It’s also fun with prepositions. In preparation for We’re Going On a Bear
Hunt, we’ve had a lot of fun going ‘over’ tables and ‘under’ chairs!
Puppets
I love using puppets! Sometimes the puppet or stuffed toy is connected to the
story. I have a bear that makes an appearance when I teach stories with bears in
them, and a pig and cow that usually come out for farm related stories. They can
help engage the kids with the topic of the story. If the puppet is excited to read it,
because they’re in it, the kids will get more excited too. They can also play a lead
in any games in the role of the teacher, or they can be the student with the kids
helping the puppet get the new words right. So many possibilities!
Telling the story
  Choose the storytelling space – It’s a good idea to designate a special
area in the classroom for storytelling. This is a signal to the kids that they
are going to settle down and listen to a story. It’s usually best to have them
sitting in a semi-circle if possible so that everyone can see. Make sure that
everyone is settled before you start. You don’t want cries of ‘I can’t see!’
when you’re trying to tell the story.
 Engage interest – If you’re introducing a new story for the first time, show
the kids that you’re really excited. If you look interested, they will be too.
Show the kids the cover and let them look at it. What can they see? While
you tell the story, peek at the next page so that the kids can’t see and show
an appropriate emotion. Can they imagine what it is?!
 Delivery – Use facial expressions, voices and gestures to support
understanding. Try not to read off the page, but make eye contact with the
children (This is one reason why it’s important to practise first!) I generally
try to read the pictures rather than the text.
 Involve the children – ask them questions. What can they see? How is the
boy feeling? Is he happy? Why? What do you think is next? Ask them to
indicate things in the pictures. Point to things and get things wrong so they
correct you. Encourage them to join in with repeated phrases. I’ve had a lot
of fun with Go Away Big Green Monster, where I pretend to be really scared
and not able to look at the page. The kids start saying either ‘I’m not scared!’
or sometimes, ‘I’m scared’, to keep me company! They could have pictures
of key characters to hold up when they appear, or sequencing cards to put
in order. Give the learners the space to react to the story at various points
and share their experiences. Ask questions that promote higher thinking
skills, e.g., Why do you think the elephant painted himself grey?
Post-storytelling activities
It’s really important that the story doesn’t just end with the storytelling. If you want
the kids to acquire language from the story, you’re going to have to help bring it to
life. That’s where your post-storytelling activities come in. Depending on the time
you have available, these activities might carry over to the next lesson or a series
of lessons. Again, there are a lot of different activities you could do, including
flashcard games and mini-card games. More often than not, though, most of my
learners are ready to do some individual (but interactive!) work and they really look
forward to a craft or worksheet type activity. These also serve as a record of work
and something to share with families, who can carry on the learning at home. For
me, one of the most important things to consider in a post-storytelling activity is
how I can include as much story re-telling as possible. These thoughts led me to
creating a lot of my own resources that serve to do just that. Below is a summary of
some of the main types of activities involved in my worksheets and crafts that my
learners and I like to do (more details in future blog posts!)
 Colouring – We do this interactively, sometimes in a dictation format.
Rather than me simply telling them what part to colour, I might retell the
story and stop at particular points for them to tell me what they have to
colour next. If it is a song-story, we sing the song (with the verses out of
order) as a way to tell them what the next item is. Alternatively, they can
colour what they want but they need to ask me for the colours in English.
This gives me an opportunity to talk to them about their pictures and gives
them the chance to hear or produce the language. Sometimes, I simply let
them colour at their own pace, but it gives me the chance to go around and
interact with each student. With song-stories, I have the song playing quietly
in the background.
 Find and stick / cut and paste – In these activities, the students need to
glue a key character or object from the story in place. I usually prefer to do
the cutting part myself before class, partly to save time and also partly
because it allows me to set the activity up in a more interactive way. I like to
place a mixed up collection of these cut up pieces in a part of the room or
kept in their sets but placed in different areas of the room. As with colouring
dictation activities, I can retell the story, pausing at points for them to find
and stick the correct item in place, or they can ask me for what’s next. With
certain crafts, such as storyboards or mini-books, they have to make
additional decisions (recalling the story) to put the pieces in the correct
sequence.
 Construction / crafts & games – Some activities involve folding and skills
that need more fine motor skills. For these, I usually have the children sitting
in a circle and we do it together. This also gives me the opportunity to
reinforce language from the story, as well as practising other classroom
language. We use these types of resources, such as fortune tellers, magic
books, spinner crafts, flip books, mini-books and slider crafts as retelling
tools once they are completed. It’s great to see kids spontaneously use
English as they play at retelling the story together!
  Dramatisation – Some stories are fantastic for dramatising the whole thing
– The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Enormous Turnip and One Duck Stuck
come to mind. The kids can usually produce the whole thing themselves
after a few sessions. But dramatising doesn’t mean a whole theatre
production. Quite often, we’ll make masks or puppets and play with drama
games with them. With Elmer, the kids played with their finger puppets,
making them walk, jump, fly, dance or swim to different colours in the room.
With Walking Through the Jungle, we played the song and they made their
stick puppet do the actions.
Final thoughts and top tips
 Choose stories you like and feel comfortable with. If you don’t like them, it’ll
be pretty tough to get the kids interested.
 Tell the same story several times over a few sessions. The first time, don’t
overdo it with the questions and interaction opportunities. It’s the first time
the kids have heard the story. Let them hear it! There’s a danger you’ll kill
the story and the kids will lose interest. This was a top tip I’ve held onto from
feedback I got when I started storytelling. The next time, they’ll be able to
spend a little more time over each page. After that, they’ll be more familiar
with the key language and can start joining in a bit more. Many of my groups
like taking turns being the storyteller (with me helping them out at the side). I
usually divide the pages up among the students so everyone gets a go.
 If you see them losing interest, try your storyteller tricks! Vary your voice,
feign shock at the next page. You might just have to pick up the pace. Of
course, if you see that they’re just not into it that day, it might be because
they’re tired or hungry. Don’t force the story on them. It might be wise to
leave the story that day but come back to it the next.
 In dictation type post-storytelling activities, it often happens that the whole
group starts off together but after a while, some are faster, some slower.
One way I have kept them together in the past is by turning the activity into
a team competition so that they help each other complete that section of
their picture/craft. Nowadays, if they start going at different paces, I let them.
I’m usually still able to give the language to each individual when they’re
ready for it.