We have another guest author for you today from Arthur Wears; exploring ideas for creative writing and imaginative story prompts for kids to use to help build their own stories and characters.
Before being able to sit down and write a story for themselves, we need to encourage a love of story-telling within young children.
How images help with imaginative story prompts for kids
Looking at images to search for contextual clues, and ideas about what could be happening or even little provocations to what might happen next…. This can lead to setting off a chain of events as children’s minds, helping them to imagine, plan and deliver a story with excitement!
This is a great way of helping them to get started without the pressure of putting pen to paper themselves…
Giving children an image to start from, or even tangible resources alongside a book such as this piece on enhancing imaginative play, can really help to fire up their imaginations.
Often, starting from nothing can be too abstract for younger children and they will need visual information in order to begin a story within their mind.
Encouraging children to look at the details within a picture, seeing how many things they are able to notice before deciding on their story can really help.
What do our printable image story prompts look like?
We have included a story provocation image with this article for you to download and print off.
The above images (both of which are included within the printables that you can print off through the button below) includes different types of scenery, settings, characters and action shots.
There is enough open ended details for children to develop their own story and ideas.
There is also a black and white printable for children to colour themselves and add in any additional characters they may require in their story!
Do tag us in social media @arthurwears / @kiddycharts, if your little one has a go as making up their own story using these images, we’d love to see them.
Often, children are much more relaxed at answering questions or talking about their ideas if they are simultaneously busy on a task such as drawing or colouring in.
Imaginative story prompts for kids
We have also included, alongside the printable images to use for story prompts, we also have a printable list of ideas for you to download too:
1. Discuss possibilities first:
- What can you see in the picture?
- Who is in the picture? What do you notice?
- Where do you think this story takes place?
- What is happening in the picture?
2. Then build the story:
- What happens at the start of your story?
- How is the character feeling, why? What do they do and say?
- What happen next?
- Is there a problem or something that goes wrong in your story? How do you solve the problem?
- Do you need to add a character into your story?
- How does your story end?
Try to keep the activity stress free with minimal pressure.
You may wish to record what your child says and then scribe it later, so as not to disrupt the flow of the conversation about their story or to make them feel like they are being assessed in any way.
Modelling how to tell a story
The best way for children to learn how to undertake an activity is for you to model doing the activity yourself first.
In this activity, you can look at the picture and voice out loud what you can see, what you have noticed, as well as what you think is happening.
Talk about the story you are imagining, and invite the child to join in with you. Keep it fun and exciting and soon they will be coming up with their own ideas and short stories.
To download the activities and images – just click on the buttons below:
We do hope you like this activity, why not let us know?
If you are looking for other ideas and activities for kids – why not check out our family activities search engine, or some of the other ideas below?
Imaginative play resources on KiddyCharts
Here are a few other imaginative play activity ideas from the site for you to explore. Why not encourage your kids to get creative today?
5 top tips for creating imaginative play spaces
Here are some thoughts on creating imaginative play spaces for kids before we get stuck into the activities.
Finger puppets for pretend play fun (including backdrops): FREE printables
This is one of our most popular downloads - some wonderful backdrops and scenes from the kids to create their own puppet shows.
Free printable uniformed paper dolls activity for kids: Doctors and nurses
Dolls are a wonderful activity for fine motor skills when you make them - but are also excellent to use in imaginative play afterwards too.
Build your own robot free STEM printable
What better way to inspire creativity than with building your own robot?!?
Free alien finger puppets
We've got some more finger puppets for you - this time aliens! Check these out for fun pretend play for the kids.
Here are some other ideas from the internet:
Imaginative role play ideas from around the web
Enjoy some great ideas for imaginative role play with these ideas from around the web.
2020 Top Pretend Play Toys and Gifts
Check out some of the top pretend play toys and gifts of 2020.
Must Have Dress Up Box Essentials
Check out these fun dress up box essentials to help your kids with some imaginative role play.
Spaghetti Shop Pretend Play Activity
Here's a fun spaghetti shop pretend role play activity for your little ones.
If you like this article, why not check out the others in the 31 Days of Activities series, and also sign up to other articles on the site as they happen:
We hope to see you again soon on the site.
Helen
Sarah Hurst
Sarah is an EYFS Primary school Teacher, Blogger and mum of two to Arthur and Charlotte. You can find her over at www.Arthurwears.com, a child development and family lifestyle blog, sharing her favourite tried and
tested ‘Learning Through Play’ activities; thoughts and advice on parent and child wellbeing; and Lifestyle recommendations for busy families. Never without an emergency stash of dark chocolate (or a small child to share it with).
You can also follow her updates on social media:
Katy
Tuesday 10th of May 2022
Absolutely love this! I need to find a way to help my youngest daughter to practice her writing at home so this would be a lovely way to make it fun and enjoyable!