Oral Language Games
Circle Stories
This activity is a variation of co-operative story-making. Students take turns
building onto a developing story. Circle stories promote critical listening and creative
thinking. Recall and prediction skills are enhanced as students must carefully monitor
the developing story before adding a logical extension to the previous speaker’s
contribution. Students become aware of the narrative form and practise storytelling.
Materials:
- familiar story
- story stick or microphone
Grouping:
whole class or small group
Introducing the Game
1.Have students sit in a circle facing each other.
2.Reread a familiar story and discuss the characters, setting, plot, problem, and
solution.
3.Explain that the group is going to create a circle story—a story which is told one
person at a time. The first person begins the story and then each subsequent
storyteller adds further details until the story is “passed” from person to person
and comes back to the original storyteller.
4. Demonstrate how to use the story stick or microphone when retelling the story.
Playing the Game
1. Have a student begin storytelling.
2.Remind students to listen carefully and think about the story so that what they say
joins onto what the last person has said.
3.Provide assistance to those who require additional support. Pictures and story
maps are effective tools to prompt student input.
Variations
•
74
Students could retell the sequence of ideas from a non-fiction text.
Literacy Place for the Early Years—Grade Two
© 2014 Scholastic Canada Ltd.