The other day we were driving home from visiting a museum on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Yes, I said rain and it is January in the Adirondacks! Ten minutes into a forty-five minute car ride, my son piped up from the back, “I’m bored! I have nothing to look at but trees and it’s boring!” Despite the fact that I told him to bring something to entertain himself, he was bored! I didn’t want to put in a movie because it was a short trip. We were literally driving through a forest, so playing the ABC car game wouldn’t work. “Let’s play the story game.” I said.
“No, that’s boring,” he replied. Are you seeing the pattern here? After I explained how it worked, both kids wanted to play! Here's how you play: one person thinks of an opening sentence to a story and says it aloud. The next person says another sentence to continue the story, and then the third person joins in, etc. You get the idea. We agreed on some ground rules before we got started. Our rules were no violence and no spooky stuff. My kids hate scary things, so I put that out there before we even started telling stories. Our stories consisted of animals, firefighters, and more animals. It must have been our driving through the forest that prompted so many animals! Both kids loved it! It didn’t involve any writing, so spelling didn’t count, and my five year old didn’t have to worry about forming letters on a page. It made him use his imagination, follow a logical sequence and visualize what was happening in the story so far. In thirty minutes, my kids and I had created at least five stories. It was much better than having them zone out in the backseat while watching a movie, and before we knew it, we were home! Telling a story, even in this funny way, got them thinking about story plots and what characters would do in a story. It is a way to increase their vocabulary, because I am playing along too. Both of my children benefited from having an adult in the game because they would often use some of my phrases in subsequent stories. They got to develop the characters and take them on twists that others hadn’t thought about. My son got mad when my daughter made one of his characters return to the firehouse too soon. He wanted the fire to rage on and invite more firefighters to help with the fire. He got a quick lesson in rolling with it; not all things end up going your way, you know! It also sharpened their listening skills. They had to listen to other people tell the story, and adjust their thoughts based on how the story was proceeding. This will help their comprehension of stories when they read. While reading, they can predict and think about how they would make the story go, and then read to see if they were correct. In the story game, they had to figure out a logical sequence of events, and somehow draw the story to a conclusion. The stories didn’t drag on forever, because I always announced a “final round” which meant they had to wrap up their thought so we could start a new one. Since that car ride, the kids have asked to play this game at home several times. It’s a great thing to do while I am cooking dinner, or getting them ready for bath and bedtime. It keeps them engaged and thinking. Even though they are not actually reading text, they are thinking about the story, and that’s what we want all readers to do when they read. Try it with your kids the next time they are bored in the car. It’s better than a movie or video games, and certainly better than listening to them whine!
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AuthorMy name is Laura Coffin, and I am the reading specialist at Lake Placid Elementary School. I have a BA from William Smith College and a M.Ed. in Reading from Lesley University. I also hold a Wilson Language Level I certification. I teach reading, writing and spelling strategies to help all students! Follow me on twitter @lgaetacoffin Archives
December 2017
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