Retelling Stories with Story Maker Mats

I once saw a kid-written sign in a classroom that read, “Stories Happen Here.”  What lucky kids! I knew this meant that they weren’t just being read stories, they were also inventing and retelling stories.  I immediately wanted to know how I could create this kind of environment in my classroom.

And was sure it would take more than just hanging a sign!

Supporting Kids in Retelling Stories

Telling and retelling stories have wide-reaching benefits for young children including building vocabulary, teaching story elements, developing expressive language, and increasing comprehension. It is a playful and fun form of expression and creates an excellent bridge to writing.

But I knew that in order for my kiddos to be successful in “making stories happen,” they would first need to internalize a solid sense of story structure. Here’s how I use Story Maker Mats, to illustrate those story structures and support my young storytellers in telling and retelling stories.

Begin with Adventure Stories

Just as I don’t wait until my kiddos can read to put books in their hands, I don’t delay opportunities for telling and retelling stories.  I have found that what I call adventure stories are a great place to start. These involve a specific setting, but allow children to invent the characters and the adventures they have there.  Or, they can retell a familiar story that takes place in that setting.  At this beginning level, children use what they already know about character and setting, along with their experiences and imaginations to create stories.

Tell News Stories

Another type of story that I offer early in the year is news stories.  My kiddos show up every day with news to share and ignoring that would be a missed opportunity. I use a 4W structure (who, what, where, and when) to guide them in telling these “true and about you” stories.

I’ve discovered that time spent telling news stories early in the year helps “plant seeds” for personal narrative writing done in the spring.

Add Story Structure

Once children are comfortable telling adventure and news stories, I begin teaching them about the different text structures found in the stories we are reading together.  These might include, beginning/middle/end, problem/solution, or story patterns such as cumulative (staircase) and circular.  The Story Maker Mats provide graphic organizers for these structures, such as the train for beginning, middle and end, to support children in retelling these stories.

Retelling Stories Support Writing Instruction

I also use these Story Maker Mats to support my children’s emergent writing.  My kiddos really need opportunities to orally rehearse BEFORE they write.  Finding and telling small moment stories can be especially difficult without first building this oral story language.  These stories build on our news stories, but require children to zoom in on a memory and deep dive into one single moment.

How-to writing can also be supported by way of oral rehearsal.

Tell Content Area Stories

Retelling stories isn’t limited to ELA.  There are many opportunities within the content areas for storytelling. In science, my kiddos tell life cycle stories:

And in social studies, they tell bio stories using a time line graphic.

Retelling Stories in 3 Different Ways

With each new Story Maker Mat that I introduce, I model how to tell the story 3 different ways – touch and tell, draw and tell, and make and tell.  These can be used to scaffold instruction, for children who are supported by doing all three, or as a way to provide choices for children.  Some children prefer to draw their story while others might enjoy making one.

I also use these anchor charts to model the steps to follow for each type of story.

Set Up a Story Center

In our classroom, we have a Story Center where these Story Maker Mats and loose parts are kept.  Children use them during reading workshop and they are also a fun choice for children during Discovery Workshop.

Here is a Set-up Guide that might be helpful if you are considering setting up a story center in your classroom.

Retelling Stories Year Round

Retelling stories isn’t just a one and done unit in our reading curriculum.  There are too many benefits that could be lost if I “boxed” it in.  Instead, I introduce these Story Maker Mats at the beginning of the year and slowly build as children’s storytelling skills grow and develop.

Now, when I look around my classroom, “Stories ARE Happening Here,” and we don’t even need a sign to say so!

For more ideas on books, reading, and literacy, visit the Growing Readers page inside the Roots & Wings Resource Library.