Once Upon A Time – A Storytelling Game

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Today we played ‘Once Upon A Time’: An Imaginative Storytelling Game.

 

Once Upon A Time… there was a lost lion who was found by superman, who flew the lion to a desert island where he found Jake, just then a flaming fire ball crashed into the island, Jake and the lion ran for cover! Fortunately they found a banana phone and called for help, to be rescued by a flying dragon who took them home.

The End.

This is such a fun and creative game to play with children of all ages. It’s a great exercise in storytelling and using your imagination. Any time my little creators start getting a bit rowdy, I have them all grab an object, put it in our story bag, then sit in a circle and let the story telling begin. It calms them down but still ignites their imaginations and excites them, ok lets get to it!

Story Telling Supplies:

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• A Non-See Through bag, or box
• Toys! (any will do)

 

Tell It:

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1. CHOOSE 3-5 toys or objects to put in the bag.

PARENT TIP:  If your kids fancy it have them choose the toys to surprise you, or have everyone in the game choose 1 or 2 toys

2.  PLACE the toys in the bag / box.

3. PLAY!

• Start by sitting in a circle.
• Give the 1st person to start the story the bag and have them pull out one object.
• Have them start out the story with “Once Upon A Time” … then set up the story (we’ll use the lion puppet from above as an example)
  1. State what the toy/object is “There was a lion”
  2. Then set the scene “he lived in the jungle”
  3. Then state a problem to be solved “but was lost”
  4. End with a hook “just then…”
• Pass the bag over to the next person to continue the story.
• Another way to play is to give the bag to just one person and have that person tell the whole story pulling out 1 toy at a time.

Expand It:

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Try not to be limited by the objects put in the bag and they’re typical uses. I was taught this by my son who put the shapes below in the bag for us to tell a story.  At first I was stumped, so he started off the story…turns out that what appears to be some shaped blocks is actually a story about 2 princesses 👑👑, and 3 Kingdoms: Fire 🔥, Water💧and Grass 🌱.  Our kids have so much to offer in terms of imagination and creativity, sometimes its great to have them lead the way for us. If you want to spice up the game try using some abstract objects and see where their imagination takes you!

Do Tell: Leave a comment below

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Tell me your story, I would love to hear the stories your family came up with.