• Create opportunities for children to look at books together, and not just read the words!
• Take turns to talk about the pictures, and have fun guessing what might happen next. If the child knows the story really well ask them to tell the story to someone else.
• Encourage the child to develop their understanding and recall of the correct sequence of events throughout the day and for familiar stories.
• Talk about events within a taught activity, using sequencing vocabulary such as ‘First we put the ingredients in the bowl’, ‘Then we mixed everything together’, ‘Last we put the mixture into the cake cases’. Talk about this sequence before you do it, what you’re doing whilst you do it, then recap again after the event. See if the child can then tell you what you did.

Telling Stories

Children are learning to produce short narratives i.e:

• telling fictional stories
• recalling a story they have heard
• recalling an event that has happened to them
• talking about something they are going to do

Activity sheet

Telling Stories

• Able to list events with some detail e.g. “We went to the seaside and I made the biggest sandcastle ever and we ate fish and chips on newspaper”
• Re-tell favourite stories – some parts as exact repetition and some in their own words e.g. “…going on a bear hunt, going to catch a big one, we’re not scared…and he chased them all the way home”
• Begin to add something that’s gone wrong in their own stories e.g. “…but the little boy dropped his big ice cream on the floor and he was very sad and crying…”

Activity sheet

Telling Stories

• Tell a story with important key components in place – so they set the scene, have a basic story plot and the sequence of events are generally in the right order
• Describe their own experiences in detail and in the right order e.g. About a holiday, weekend activities or visits
• Accurately predict what will happen in a story
• Begin to be aware of what the listener knows already and make checks while telling a story e.g. “You know Mr Jones, he’s our caretaker, he always wears a hat, well he wasn’t in school today…”

Activity sheet

Wh-question Prompt Cards

Telling Stories

• Put interest into their voices to make storytelling exciting and come to life
• Add detail or leave information out according to how much is already known by the listener
• Stories have a good structure with distinct plot, an exciting event, clear resolution and conclusion e.g. and everyone got home safely which was great
• Tell elaborate entertaining stories which are full of detailed descriptions
• Incorporate a subplot in telling stories and recalling events, before resolving the main storyline

Activity sheet

Telling Stories

• Tells interesting, entertaining and original stories
• Explains the rules of a game or a sequence of events in a simple but accurate way
• Follows guidance and modelled answers to structure written work
• Makes links between learning and personal experiences, and shows these in their spoken and written narratives

Activity sheet

Self-Help Strategies

Telling Stories

• Tells interesting, entertaining and original stories
• Is able to explain the rules of a game, or a sequence of events accurately
• Developing report writing skills linked to the curriculum
• Follows guidance and modelled answers to structure written work
• Makes links between learning and personal experiences, and shows these in their spoken and written narratives

Activity sheet

Self-Help Strategies