Spark Creativity with Storytelling Activities for Kids
Written by: Liza Gresko, Mom and PR Specialist at Moss Tucker Group
The art of storytelling goes beyond entertainment. It’s actually a fundamental learning tool that builds language, social skills and imagination. For kids, especially in their preschool and early years, it’s an essential part of cognitive development.
To help you find the best storytelling activities for kids, we’re diving into storytelling ideas and storytelling activity strategies perfect for early years, kindergarten, and 1st grade.
We’ll also be spotlighting four SimplyFun board games that make storytelling fun and educational: Pickles’ Pig Tales, The Reel Script , Family Stories Chat Ring, and ARTributes.
Why Storytelling Activities Matter
Boosts Language & Narrative Skills
From short story telling for 5 year olds to kindergarten story-telling, these exercises help children string together coherent narratives. Retelling a story or inventing characters enhances sequencing, vocabulary, and discourse abilities, which are key goals in storytelling lesson plans for preschool. Research shows that playful storytelling activities promote early vocabulary and discourse skills, helping children with narrative construction and pragmatic language development. According to The U.S. Department of Education, “children use language structures as a basis for learning how to read. Therefore, literacy learning for young children must incorporate the child’s personal use of oral language. It is their per sonal oral language that supports them as they attempt new concepts and become better readers. Because of the important role that oral language plays in a young child’s literacy development, it is of the utmost importance that adults who work with young children support the growth of the child’s spoken language beginning in infancy.”
Enhances Cognitive and Executive Function
Board games strengthen your brain power. Studies have found that students who regularly played modern board games experienced improvements in executive functions, like working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility, along with academic skills in reading and math (WeAreTeachers). Another study conducted by NIH highlighted how modern board and card games activate executive functions across the board (NIH Study). “Modern board and card games are usually used for leisure. Few studies have focused on the type of game played in vulnerable populations. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of playing modern board and card games to enhance updating, inhibition, and flexibility in children at risk of social exclusion using games that activated specific basic executive functions.”
Supports Social Development
Storytelling has been around for at least 360 centuries; an artform that has been passed down for generations. The earliest forms of storytelling, like cave paintings, are estimated to be around 36,000 years old. Humans have been using storytelling as a way to communicate, entertain, and pass on knowledge through the centuries. Working together to weave tales in the classroom or sharing personal narratives at home, children learn turn-taking, active listening, empathy, and perspective-taking, which are all essential storytelling activities both in and out of the classroom.
Encourages Creative & Complex Thinking
Games that involve imaginative play align with Piaget’s theory: children in the preoperational stage (ages 2–7) thrive on symbolic play and make-believe. These attributes are exactly what storytelling games offer. Through these activities, kids experiment with ideas and learn complex systems by collaborating. Research even finds that collaborative gaming fosters even deeper scientific understanding than competitive play (University of Waterloo Study).
Bring in the Board Games!
To help enhance your storytelling activities for kids, we highly recommend adding board games to your tool kit. Board games add motivation and social interaction to storytelling.
Below is a more in-depth look at the four SimplyFun games tailored for storytelling and vocabulary enhancement that we highly recommend:
1. Pickle’s Pig Tales
2-5 players • 30 min • 6 & up
This is one of those games where you help build a story together. Up to five players aged 6 and older can play. The game comes with a stack of 80 cards with a variety of fun objects, and a game board built right into the box. It also comes with this cute little character: Pickles: the star of the show! This game introduces children to descriptive terms to expand their vocabulary. The sequencing aspect of the game helps children practice sentence structure as well as building memory.
2. The Reel Script
3-5 players • 20-30 min • 8 & up
Step into the spotlight as a screenwriter and craft an epic storyline! Unleash your creativity and imagination to piece together a script that your fellow players will vote as "the real script!" Use your planning, communication, and sequencing skills to shine!
3. Family Stories Chat Ring
2+ players • 15 min • 5 & up
Keep strong social interaction in your family with these 98 questions! Spark meaningful conversations and discover new insights that you'll treasure for years to come. Let's make memories through engaging discussions together!
4. ARTributes
3-6 players • 30 min • 7 & up
Tap into your imagination and vocabulary skills by drawing pictures based on wacky combinations of descriptive words, and watch your friends guess to score points. First to 15 points wins the ultimate doodle duel. You can play ARTributes with 3-6 players or in teams, ages 7 and up. ARTributes is good for increasing Vocabulary as players learn and use a fun range of adjectives. ARTributes also helps encourage Imagination and Creativity as players choose descriptive words and then draw an image related to those words.
Scientific Support: Why Board Games Boost Storytelling
Language & Narrative Development
Games with rule structures and storytelling prompts create rich language interaction. Activities like those in ARTributes for example support adjective learning and creative expression, both critical for storytelling fluency. Shared storytelling, guided description, and playful competition help children master story structure. They’ll be the most entertaining storytelling pros in no time!
Executive Function & Cognitive Skills
Modern board games support executive functions. Research has proven that when playing board games focused on language and literacy, game-based participants showed greater gains in working memory, attention, and verbal comprehension. A game like Pickles’ Pig Tales encourages memory recall while The Reel Script and ARTributes stimulate flexible thinking and idea organization. Adding in Family Stories Chat Ring boosts recall and emotional reasoning.
Social–Emotional & Collaborative Learning
Games like Family Stories Chat Ring and The Reel Script nurture social storytelling and peer learning. Research suggests that games played in collaborative settings, not just competitive ones, increase dialogue, empathy, and narrative quality. A positive, supportive environment focused on having fun while building those language skills goes a long way to enhancing the talent of storytelling among children.
Some Final Thoughts:
- Storytelling ideas for early years, whether they’re spontaneous or more structured, lay the foundation for lifelong communication, confidence, and creativity. Starting at a young age is both entertaining, fun and paramount to stronger literacy and storytelling capabilities into adulthood.
- Board games like Pickles’ Pig Tales, The Reel Script, Family Stories Chat Ring, and ARTributes give children the tools and the joy to explore storytelling in diverse ways. With everything from memory sharing and character creation to expressive vocabular building, there’s an enticing option for every child regardless of age and stage.
- Research proves these activities enhance language, cognitive development, and social-emotional learning across all ages and classroom levels. By having options for children to choose from whether in at home for family game night or solo play, or in the classroom for collaborative play with classmates or independent learning, you’re helping set the foundation for a more enhanced vocabulary and confidence in communication.
- Use these games to support everything from preschool storytelling ideas to more advanced storytelling activities for 1st grade or even storytelling activity for adults examples in training sessions. We have always been advocates of game play anytime, anywhere. Utilize that fun component and encourage children to test their hand at various game play options no matter where you are or who you’re with.
Explore SimplyFun’s Storytelling Collection
Storytelling is so much more than sharing a narrative. It creates wonder, imagination, invokes emotion and understanding. It can make you laugh, cry, or a mixture of both. It can help you learn things about life and yourself as well as the people around you. It’s a talent that must be nurtured and practiced to truly be appreciated. With SimplyFun’s games, storytelling activities become exciting, enriching, and something kids truly look forward to.
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10 Kids’ Dice Games That Are Fun for the Whole Family!
